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LABRADOR 

THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE 



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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 





D U ju^n .lfU~^c. 



LABRADOR 



THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE 



BY 

WILFRED T. GRENFELL, C.M.G., M.R.C.S., 
V M.D. (Oxon.) 

AND OTHERS 



NEW EDITION 
REVISED AND WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION 



Nefo gorfe 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1922 

All rights reserved 



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Copyright, 1909, 1913 and 1922, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1909. 
New edition with new matter April, 1913. 
Revised and with a new Introduction June, 1922. 



Printed in the United States of America 



JUL 12 1922 

®GI.AB*4882 



FOREWORD 



By Wilfred T. Grenfell 



Having selected for myself a role in life that compels 
me to pass most of my days along the coasts of Labrador, 
I have come to love the rugged fastnesses of my adopted 
country, and to lament the amount of almost Stygian dark- 
ness that hangs still over it and its resources. With re- 
gard to the future of this vast area, nearly half a million 
square miles, I am myself an optimist. True it is that 
the great tide of humanity flowing ever westward has for 
the most part passed it by, leaving it lone and frigid in 
its polar waters. But the hand of man has grappled with 
harder problems than this presents. 

A scientific man has but recently transformed the use- 
less flora of hitherto arid deserts into food for man and 
beast ; at the bidding of an engineer water is now flowing 
over the sands of Southern California, and land of perhaps 
unrivalled fertility is the result. Man's hand has dammed 
the royal Nile, so long prodigal of her unfettered waters ; 
and a vast, new kingdom is springing into being. A 
college man has given his skill to acclimatizing fruit and 
vegetables to Dakotan frosts, and we have a plum that 
withstands a temperature of forty degrees below zero 
Fahrenheit, and strawberries that will live in the open 
all winter even in that climate. 

v 



VI FOBEWOBD 

The coming granary for the world's wheat supply was 
yesterday despised as " the land of snows " ; to-day the 
subsoil of the world's best wheat land never thaws out, 
and the frozen valley of the Peace River is vying with 
the " corn " lands of the Pharaohs. 

To us here, away out of the world's hum and bustle, 
it seems only a question of time. Some day a railway 
will come to export our stores of mineral wealth, to tap 
our sources of more than Niagaran power, to bring visitors 
to scenery of Norwegian quality yet made peculiarly 
attractive by the entrancing colour plays of Arctic auroras 
over the fantastic architecture of mountains the like of 
which can seldom be matched on the earth. Surely it 
will come to pass that one day another Atlantic City will 
rise amidst these unexplored but invigorating wilds to 
lure men and women tired of heat and exhausted by the 
nerve stress of overcrowded centres. 

It has seemed appropriate, in this belief, to try to 
collate available information in the form of a book that 
should bring within easy reach of the public the facts 
that are of interest concerning Labrador. It is hoped, 
also, that such a book will act as an incentive to others 
to come and pursue still further the studies and explora- 
tions herein described. With these objects in view I 
sought the help of friends skilled in the various branches 
of science, as it can now declare the meaning of Labrador, 
the land and the people. 

Dr. Reginald A. Daly, Professor of Geology at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology of Boston, had, 
during an extended trip in a schooner along the Lab- 
rador coast, expended considerable work upon its rock 
formations, and to him has been intrusted not only 



FOREWORD Vll 

the chapter on Geology, but also the task of editing the 
whole work. 

Dr. E. B. Delabarre, Professor of Psychology at Brown 
University, accompanied Dr. Daly on his journey along the 
coast, and has described the flora from an ecological point 
of view as most likely to be of interest to the average 
reader. His exhaustive list of plants has been omitted 
from the book, but is preserved at Brown University. 

Dr. C. W. Townsend of Boston and Mr. G. M. Allen, 
who have written on the ornithology, made a special 
journey to Labrador to study its birds. Dr. Townsend 
has already published a book entitled Along the Labrador 
Coast as a further result of their expedition. 

Mr. Charles W. Johnson, Curator of the Boston Society 
of Natural History, has undertaken the insects (Mr. John 
Sherman, Junior, expert on the beetles, has described this 
special group) and mollusks from a collection of Mr. 
Owen Bryant of Harvard, made in 1908. 

Mr. Outram Bangs has supplied the list of mammals. 
Miss Mary J. Rathbun, the well-known expert at the 
United States National Museum at Washington, supplied 
all the information we have about the crustaceans, includ- 
ing a study of those collected by Mr. Bryant. 

Dr. A. P. Low, Deputy of Minister of Mines in Canada, 
has contributed a chapter on the interior of this little- 
known land. 

Mr. William B. Cabot of Boston, who for several years 
has made an annual visit to the Montagnais Indians of 
Labrador, and who has edited a dictionary of their lan- 
guage, has had unique opportunities for observing their 
habits. He has contributed a valuable monograph from 
his special experiences. 



Vlll FOREWORD 

The chapter on History was to have been prepared by 
Mr. W. G. Gosling of St. John's, Newfoundland, who 
had devoted some years, and gone to no small expense, on 
a special study of this subject. But his results involved 
such an extended treatise that it was thought wiser to 
issue them under a separate cover than unduly to enlarge 
this volume, and Mr. W. S. Wallace, of Balliol College, 
Oxford, has prepared a brief historical introduction. 

For seventeen years I have been collecting such facts 
as my regular work permitted. From them I have 
selected material for certain chapters. To many friends 
who have supplied such information I wish to acknowl- 
edge my indebtedness. Incomplete as this book surely 
is, it is issued from a desire to record the more interesting 
facts, the coins of science, which might otherwise need 
rediscovery. It is hoped that the book may be of use 
even to those familiar with Packard's excellent work. 



PREFACE 

The three years which have passed since the publica- 
tion of this book have seen more attention paid to the 
development of Labrador than the twenty -five preceding. 
The results promise to be consonant with the views herein 
expressed; viz., that Labrador may always remain a "La- 
bourer's Land," a land where men are obliged to work for 
sport or a living, but one which can yield an ample return 
to those who do so. Deposits of rich ore may at any 
time give out, but the wealth of Labrador lies in those 
things which, if properly handled, are ever reproducing 
themselves. 

The fact is that as a storehouse and sanctuary Labrador 
needs now, if ever, the serious and disinterested attention 
of those able to save it. With this end in view, I have 
decided to add to the new edition a chapter on Conserva- 
tion and Exploration in Labrador, and what that might 
mean, not only for the future of the country itself, but 
also to the increasing population of the North American 
Continent. Besides this chapter, I have also added a 
much-needed bibliography and some remarks about the 
habits of our land mammals. 



WILFRED T. GRENFELL, M.D. 



" Strathcona," 
North Labrador. 



IX 



INTRODUCTION 

During the years that have elapsed since this symposium 
was published, a good deal of work has been done on the 
Labrador Peninsula and new facts have been contributed to 
our knowledge concerning it that are of interest to the public. 
The deductions of all recent observers is that the country 
has been too harshly judged and that it is far from being the 
awful desolation pictured by Professor Hind, or necessarily 
the home of starvation that Professor Sterne would have the 
world believe. 

Labrador has continued through the ages the lone, lorn 
widow of civilization. The possible values of its half million 
square miles are still almost unknown. The Canadian 
Geological Survey has done splendid work on it, though no 
industrial development has resulted from its discoveries. 
Due to its work, however, an immense amount of light has 
been thrown upon this vast peninsula with its waters drain- 
ing into four seas. Geologically it forms part of the great 
Canadian Shield — a vast complex of pre-Cambrian rocks, 
which in its well-known parts has furnished immense de- 
posits of valuable minerals, such as the iron and copper of 
the Lake Superior district, the magnetic iron ores of the 
Adirondacks, the gold of the Porcupine, the silver and co- 
balt of Cobalt, and the nickel and copper of Sudbury, On- 
tario. It is reasonable to suppose that treasures do lie still 
untouched in Labrador's rocks. For beyond the mere anal- 
ogy with the rest of Northern Canada, gold was discovered 
"in situ" a few years ago in the Mealy Mountains, a range 



xii INTRODUCTION 

running northwest and southeast about the centre of the east 
coast. The furore created at that time ended in a small 
expedition whose efforts are marked now only by a heap 
of abandoned machinery on the sandy beaches between 
Sandwich Bay and Hamilton Inlet. The long winter which 
prevents communication by water with the northern part of 
the seacoast for eight or nine months out of twelve also broke 
the Syndicate which was mining pyrites for the sulphur one 
hundred miles south of Cape Chidley. So far nothing has 
been done to develop the large iron deposits known as mag- 
netite and hematite in the Grand River Valley. Like some 
sulky virgin, Labrador is still wrapped in the garments of 
isolation, while her lovers seem for the time to have turned 
dejectedly away. Probably the best overture made for her 
favor has been the quarrying of some of the precious labra- 
dorite which appears in large quantities near Nain and also 
near the Northwest River. 

War and industrial unrest have prevented the settlement 
of the question of the boundary of Newfoundland Labrador, 
It is still an undefined strip of land along the Atlantic Coast 
and the Straits of Belle Isle. This fact, as far as the develop- 
ment of the country is concerned, is a serious handicap. 
However, events in Newfoundland seem to point to the prob- 
ability of confederation with Canada in the near future, when 
the point at issue could readily be solved even if the decision 
of the Privy Council, now under consideration, never ma- 
terializes. In 1912 all the rest of the large peninsula formerly 
known as "Labrador" was added to the Province of Quebec, 
an area reputed to contain 354,961 square miles. Under the 
mediaeval title "the coasts of Labrador," Newfoundland still 
holds jurisdiction over an unknown quantity of it, as if she 
were some sea rover granted all she could get out of " foreign 
parts abroad." 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

Canada in 1921 sent the S.S. Acadia to make a complete 
survey of Hamilton Inlet, which she claimed directly lumber 
mills were erected in the Grand River district. As a result, 
the big companies trading for fur in the Bay have refused to 
pay duties to Newfoundland. If justified in this, it looks as 
if those which have long been paid under protest would have 
to be refunded by the Colony. 

As Labrador has no representation, it being too expensive 
to collect the votes of the widely scattered inhabitants, it 
was proposed in 1919 to appoint the Governor of Newfound- 
land ex-officio as Commissioner for it, but nothing resulted 
and there is still no one to care for her interests. The first 
protector, the Governor of Boston, refused to look after her, 
Newfoundland neglected her, and Canada got tired of her 
and returned her, till now she still drags along unrepresented 
and uncared for. This is so much the case that close as she 
is to the United States many of her marvellous fjords are as 
yet uncharted. Thus the only chart extant of the approach 
to Nain from the sea was made in 1912 by a German. My 
own copy was presented to me by the author, captain of the 
battleship Bremen, later so famous in the Great War. The 
captain of the mail steamer patrolling the northern three 
hundred miles of coast says that he never uses a chart, as 
there is none of any value, except for the general direction. 

The bays of Labrador are marvellously wild and interest- 
ing, many still untrodden by the foot of civilized man. In 
the Labrador Pilot, volume II of 1917, are our descriptions 
of three of these bays. In addition, we have explored three 
more. Jeanette Bay has a fine harbour for yachts at the en- 
trance, and a vessel of ten feet draught could easily pick her 
way up thence, following her motor boat to an anchorage 
close to a fine salmon river. The seals and birds which we 
saw in the Bay also made us feel that it would appeal strongly 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

to sportsmen. Mr. Paul Rainey in the S.S. Surf visited it 
about 1912, and secured excellent hunting and fishing. Ad- 
latok Bay is also a wonderful piece of water, uniting half way 
down with another great bay called Ugutok. Of all the fjords 
visited by us and as yet undescribed, I would place Tik- 
koaktokak Bay first for grandeur and awe-inspiring scenery. 
Its perpendicular cliffs polished by land and snowslides ; its 
extraordinary formation on the north side and the two rivers 
flowing into the head, one from the east and the other from 
the southwest, with their mouths within a biscuit's toss of 
one another, make it an exceptionally thrilling experience to 
penetrate to its headwaters. The anchorage there is safe 
and excellent. These magnificent waterways will some day 
prove one of the chief sources of income of the " Lonely Lab- 
rador." While we took salmon and large trout on the fly 
the former need a lot of tempting to rise, though each fish 
was worth catching. One could see hundreds in the pools. 
There is also hunting in season, — deer trails, bear foot- 
prints, and other signs of wild animal life being very evident. 
Of the other bays, Seaglek runs in forty miles, between 
cliffs averaging two thousand feet in height and in places 
reaching to over three thousand five hundred. For the last 
twenty miles these cliffs are only separated by a narrow mile 
of fjord, and give an impressive sense of grandeur as one sails 
up. In Kanairiktok Bay — running in about thirty miles 
from the seacoast — is a beautiful fall thirty feet high, the 
foam of which can be seen miles distant. In Adlavik Bay 
are several rivers and in the pool of one of them were hundreds 
of salmon. The old idea that salmon north of latitude 52° 
will hardly take a fly is entirely exploded. Two American 
friends fishing in the Eagle River this year (1921) only stopped 
fishing because they had caught all they needed and could 
preserve. 



INTRODUCTION XV 

The forests of Labrador, though not known to be of great 
value and immense extent, are hardly touched by man's 
enterprise. Black and white pines attain commercial size 
in most of the river valleys as far north as 55°. Spruce two 
feet across and several feet long are numerous in the Ham- 
ilton River Valley. An adventurous aeronautical survey of 
the timber lands of the southeastern section made in 1919 
showed a very general and dense distribution of good-looking 
timbers, birch and balsam poplars being everywhere in evi- 
dence among the conifers. Judging by the excellent spars 
up to seventy feet long which I have seen floated out of rivers 
as far north even as the big river of Adlavik north of Cape 
Harrison, the day is not far off when in this land of Cain the 
" welkin will ring to the tune of axes and saws" that will hew 
out prosperity for a people, even as at Chicoutami and 
Abatibi, further west and south in the same peninsula. 

The much frequented ocean way known as the Straits 
of Belle Isle which bounds Labrador on the southeast has 
been again of late the subject of serious discussion. It has 
been suggested that a dam nine miles long be built from 
Point Amour to Flowers Cove on the north Newfoundland 
shore, which would close off the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This, 
by shutting out the Arctic ice and the cold water of the Polar 
current, might considerably ameliorate the climate of all the 
land to the westward. The water is not deep, and the enter- 
prise is in no way impossible. Judging from personal ex- 
perience, however, I should very much doubt this result on 
the climate, for the outside ice seems seldom to penetrate far 
enough into the Gulf to alter the temperature much, although 
the formation of ice locally may be responsible for this. 

The fact that the ability to free nitrogen from its com- 
pounds was really a measure of power to win the war also 
suggests a great future for the perfectly untold undeveloped 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

energy of the waterfalls from the great Labrador table-land. 
When it is remembered that Germany succeeded during the 
past few years in converting a need for nitrogen expressed 
by 750,000 tons annually of imported nitrates into an ability 
to export 500,000 tons of her own manufacture from the air, 
the untold possibilities of a country, one-fourth of which is 
estimated to be lakes and rivers, and whose immense table- 
lands rise many hundreds of feet above the sea and measure 
hundreds of thousands of square miles, can well be realized. 
It needs no special prophetic vision to foretell a future for this 
long neglected country, especially when timber, coal and 
other fuel get scarcer, as they bid fair to do, before the energy 
of the free atom is at man's service. Such energy in all 
probability will be available by the use of some such 
unstinted cheap power as falling water — a geometrical 
progression, exactly as toxins communicated are stepped up, 
becoming more toxic as they affect each new person. An- 
other new and enormous source of power was put on the map 
in 1921 by John Thomas of Buffalo. Travelling from the 
hospital at Northwest River in the month of March with his 
dogs he discovered twenty miles south of the present Grand 
Falls another of the same height though less in volume. The 
water is an offshoot of the Grand River above the falls and 
rejoins it below. Okpatik, Kanairiktok and others are also 
very considerable sources of power. About the centre of the 
country one of the most wonderful phenomena in the world, 
the Grand Falls of Labrador, still yields neither its pleasure 
nor its energy to mankind, and only a rare traveller has set 
eyes upon its marvels. 

So far it has always been the fishery and furring industry of 
Labrador in which have consisted its chief sources of wealth. 
Considerable changes have overtaken both her land and sea 
industries. Twine for nets, rope, canvas and all ship neces- 



INTRODUCTION xvn 

sities, pork, flour and foodstuffs, oilskins, boots, woollens and 
all clothing, have so risen in cost that fish cannot be caught 
now for less than double the old-time prices. Freights have 
mounted also ; poverty and adverse exchange have so crippled 
our customers in the Mediterranean that it has become so big 
a venture to fit out a schooner for the fisheries that many of 
the very best of our " voyage-killers" have ceased to prosecute 
their calling, while some of the supply merchants have been 
driven out of business. New markets must be opened up. 
Temporarily Russia is bidding for a large quantity; while 
efforts are also being made to sell Labrador fish in the United 
States. Unfortunately the new revision of the tariff, among 
other things, discriminates against fish practically to its ex- 
clusion. America's new policy is to raise a huge wall of ex- 
clusion against her poor little neighbour; and some of us 
question its wisdom. 

New methods of catching fish, such as flax gill nets, have 
been introduced to prevent the disaster that follows upon 
there being too much bait fish, in which case the cod, lying 
stoggy in deep water, glutted with food, are impossible to 
work. There is now even a machine to split the cod, remove 
the bone and clean the fish, which is in operation in some 
parts of Labrador. The machine will take seventy fish in a 
minute and might be made to do even three times that quan- 
tity. 

Some markets are being opened in Europe for our salmon, 
and one or two steamers have prepared to furnish cold storage 
space during transportation. The old method of salting fish 
in barrels does not leave it appetizing enough to ever develop 
a new market. The recent idea of having the salmon ex- 
ported frozen, though about three times the cost, is well worth 
the expenditure. About one million pounds went out in 1921. 

There is also a modern plan for converting the immense 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

bulk of offal, heads and general wastage from our fish, into 
food for chickens. This has not yet been perfected, but is 
being tried out. As the matter stands at present the waste 
is appalling. The large amount of gelatin now lost promises 
to produce a bi-product that will again add greatly to the 
incentive to engage in the fisheries. Even before the war 
Germany was using over two hundred and fifty thousand 
tons of fish meal made from waste fish and fish waste, for 
feeding hogs and cattle. In Iceland cows are fed on salt fish, 
and they even seem to like and thrive upon the gristle and 
tail fins of large fish. There is no reason why we should not 
make farina — the dry powdered product of the flat fish now 
wasted, or of other fish — seeing that it has a protein value 
over sixty per cent. All that is needed in Labrador is to 
wisely utilize its natural products. 

The onslaught with gun harpoons and fast steamers has to 
some extent told on the number of large cetaceans that come 
within striking distance of our shores. At the present mo- 
ment every whaling station is closed. For our dog teams in 
winter we are already lamenting the loss of the generous 
supply of fat and protein food that was formerly furnished us 
by that industry, for as our sole means of transportation 
during at least six months of the year, the physical welfare 
of our dogs is of vital importance. Our seals have certainly 
decreased in number. The great steamers with their large 
crews and modern rifles give unprotected mothers and their 
young little chance to escape ; and many of the old fishery 
stands, where the seals in spring and fall regularly ' 'trimmed 
the shore" and were captured in large numbers, are now hardly 
worth fishing. The greatly increased difficulty of getting 
seal-skin moccasins which are a necessity to life in the North 
emphasizes the fact, and calls more loudly than ever to have 
accorded to these valuable animals the protection, when breed- 



INTRODUCTION xix 

ing, that every other mammal on earth useful to man has to 
have, in order to save it from extinction. 

The scientific study of the movements of our staple food 
fishes, like so much else, is still quite neglected. A big fishery 
will be carried on all summer on one side of a headland, and 
not catch enough fish to eat, while on the other side fish are 
so plentiful that the fishermen are unable to haul their nets or 
salt their catches. Why ? No one knows. Can a fisherman 
find out if he should remain waiting or move to another berth ? 
Every year empty boats return with impoverished bread- 
winners from the Coast due to this peculiar fact. Yet no one 
knows what the cause is, nor how to avert it ; and no one 
is seriously trying to find out. Temperature of the water is 
said to be the cause. In rivers heated by forest fires trout 
die at a temperature of 68° F. The bait fish in the sea 
appear to be even more sensitive. Caplin, on the move- 
ments of which our cod fishing depends, seem to die at a much 
lower temperature and to be sensitive to even one or two 
degrees rise. If a fisherman, by lowering a thermometer into 
the sea, knew that he could not find fish in one place, he 
would move to another ; but no one is even trying to teach 
him how to find out. 

Labrador is affording the world a most explicit illustration 
of the fact that impulses radiate in every direction. When 
trap-nets were first evolved and it was found that cod could 
be caught in immense quantities at one time, fishermen 
worked for an earthly paradise, and we prophesied a great 
increase in their numbers. But the contrary has happened. 
As soon as motor engines came into use, they found it so easy 
to go to and fro from the fishing grounds that we again prophe- 
sied that every man would be selling his farm and buying a 
schooner. But again the reverse was the result. If ever the 
price of fish were to reach ten dollars a quintal we prophesied 



xx INTRODUCTION 

plenty and ease for the fishermen. But once more we were 
entirely wrong. Even now the fishermen get nearly three 
times the price for their catch that used to satisfy their fore- 
bears, but they are poorer than ever, so poor that many are 
literally starved out of fishing. All along the line the country 
has made so-called progress, but the average fisherman is if 
anything less able to wrest his bread and butter from his hard 
environment. Here and there a stalwart lad has returned to 
the hook and line fishery, avoiding the gamble of a huge and 
expensive net liable without a moment's notice to be lost 
owing to heavy seas or ice and leave the venturer with 
a debt which he can never hope to pay. The " hook-and- 
liner " has to work harder, to fish during a longer season, and 
to endure more physical hardship, but he gains enormously 
in mental peace. Not a few of these same men even scrapped 
their motor engines when the price of oil mounted to a dollar 
a gallon. They thus inadvertently avoided the result of the 
motor habit, the symptoms of which seem to be marked by 
the atrophy of both physical and moral muscles. 

Mr. William Cabot journeyed from St. Augustine to Par- 
adise rivers in 1920, and his almost annual visits to them 
have demonstrated that our ancient Indian Aborigines are 
rapidly approaching extinction. The high selling price of 
fur during the war lured the white trappers to penetrate even 
further than ever into the interior and so curtail the Indians ' 
ground. The Indian will farm the valuable fur-bearing an- 
imals on his presumptive territory as carefully as a farmer 
his stock, while he will destroy all the caribou that he sees, 
though they are equally necessary to his life, since he depends 
on them for food. But he knows that the caribou is a va- 
grant, and that the white settler will shoot it if he does not. 
On lands that are common hunting grounds he has no reason 
to spare anything. Cabot, who better than any one knows 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

these people from long personal acquaintance, living and trav- 
elling with them, and having helped to publish a book 
of their language, describes them as a very charming 
race, friendly, peaceful, generous and real sportsmen — but 
doomed. 

The native Eskimo and half-breed population were almost 
decimated in 1918 by a terrible epidemic of influenza. In 
one village of three hundred people, in three weeks, two hun- 
dred and fifty died — which toll included every adult male. 
In some white settlers ' homes every soul died in a few hours ; 
and some, isolated and enfeebled, were killed by their own 
famished dogs and partly eaten, there being literally no one 
left to go to their assistance. The chief Moravian settlement 
at Nain, on its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, was 
destroyed by fire, the very day after their steamer Harmony 
had landed all their winter supplies. Everything was de- 
stroyed, including the valuable fur catch of the year, and the 
personal belongings of the missionaries. For the past one 
hundred and fifty years the Moravians have been the cham- 
pions of the Eskimo people. 

Still, there is a future, and a great future, for Labrador, 
as there was for "Our Lady of the Snows," for Alaska, for 
Australia, New Mexico, Florida, and other countries that 
have but recently come to their own. Personally, I can see 
the day ever clearer as the years go by. It may not be in 
my time. But the world needs now what the Labrador can 
give — this great, lone land of silence. In body and spirit it 
has great things to offer. During the years that have passed 
since this volume was first published, our faith has become 
only more unshaken in the future of "the Labrador." 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTEB PAGE 

I. Historical Introduction — By W. S. Wallace . 1 
II. Travelled Routes to Labrador — By Wilfred 

T. Grenfell 37 

III. The Physiography of Labrador — By Wilfred 

T. Grenfell 49 

IV. The Geology and Scenery of the Northeast 

Coast — By Reginald A. Daly .... 81 
V. The Hamilton River and the Grand Falls — 

By Albert P. Low . 140 

VI. The People of the Coast — By Wilfred T. 

Grenfell 164 

VII. The Indians — By William B. Cabot . . . 184 
VIII. The Missions — By Wilfred T. Grenfell . . 226 
IX. Reindeer for Labrador — By Wilfred T. Gren- 
fell . . . . . . . . . 251 

X. The Dogs — By Wilfred T. Grenfell . . 272 
XI. The Cod and Cod-Fishery — By Wilfred T. 

Grenfell 282 

XII. The Salmon-Fishery — By Wilfred T. Grenfell 328 

XIII. The Herring and Other Fish — By Wilfred T. 

Grenfell 340 

XIV. The Ocean Mammals — By Wilfred T. Grenfell 352 
XV. The Birds — By Charles W. Townsend . . 374 

XVI. The Flora — By E. B. Delabarre . . .391 

XVII. Animal Life in Labrador ..... 426 

XVIII. Conservation and Exploration in Labrador . 443 

xxiii 



xxiv CONTENTS 

APPENDICES 

NO. PAGE 

I. Insects of Labrador — By Charles W. Johnson 

and John Sherman, Jr 453 

II. The Marine Crustacea — By Mary J. Rathbun . 473 

III. The Mollusks — By Charles W. Johnson . . 479 

IV. List of the Mammals of Labrador — By Outram 

Bangs 484 

V. List Of the Birds of Labrador — By Charles W. 

Townsend and Glover M. Allen .... 495 
VI. List of Crustacea on the Labrador Coast — By 

Mary J. Rathbun 506 

List of Books, etc., on Labrador 515 

Bibliography ■ . 519 

Index . 521 



FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 

Wilfred T. Grenfell Frontispiece 

FACING PA(JK 

Map of Labrador 1 

Grenfell Strait 58 

Gardens at Nain, showing Potatoes being covered at 

Night from the Summer Frost 69 

"Woman Box" for Winter Sledge Travel ... 76 

The Well-beloved Mail-man 81 

Mt. Razor-back from the South, Five Miles Distant . 92 

The East Wall of the Southern Arm of Nachvak Bay 96 

The Cliffs on the North Side of Mugford Tickle . 101 

Cape Mugford, looking North 108 

View from a Hill near Hopedale Mission House . . 117 

Ice-worn Surface near Aillik Bay 120 

Looking south into the Tallek, the Southern Arm of 

Nachvak Bay 124 

Glacial Boulders on a Ridge near Ice Tickle Harbour 130 

Bear Island, Wave-washed and then Uplifted . . 130 
Raised Gravel Beach at West Bay, South Side of 

Entrance to Hamilton Inlet 135 

Half-tide View of the Shore at Ford Harbour . . 135 

Raised Beach, overlooking Emily Harbour, Sloop Island 138 

Rapids in the Hamilton River 149 

Two Views of Bowdoin Canyon 156 

Taking it Easy 163 

Eskimo in Kayaks at Hebron 170 

Court of Assize on the " Strathcona" .... 174 

Eskimo Hunter 179 

xxv 



XXVI FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

The Prayer-leader at the Ragged Islands . . . 190 

Eskimo and Nascaupee Indians, Hudson Bay . . . 195 

Davis Inlet Montagnais 195 

Indians watching the Caribou at a Crossing . . k 206 

Nascaupee Indians at Davis Inlet 206 

Blubber Yard at Hebron 211 

The S. S. "Harmony" at Ramah 222 

Okkak 227 

West Coast Eskimo 231 

A Fishing Fleet welcoming the Mission Boat's Arrival 234 

St. Anthony Hospital 238 

Interior of St. Anthony Hospital 238 

Battle Harbour — the Hospital on the Left . . . 243 

A Visitor from the North 243 

Mission S. S. "Strathcona" 246 

Where the Reindeer Graze 254 

A Deer-team 259 

The Herd in Summer 263 

After a Long Haul 266 

Whole-bred Eskimo Dogs 270 

The Mainstay of the Team 277 

On the March 284 

Waiting for Their Master . . . ... . . 284 

The Sea of Ice 289 

Newfoundland Schooners working North . • . 289 

A Batch of Prisoners 296 

Fishing Crews catching Bait 304 

The Fishing Fleet 326 

King " Attanek " and His Friends, eating Walrus Head 353 

Catching Seals near Hebron 368 

Flies and Butterflies 458 

Butterflies and Moths . . 464 



LABRADOR 

THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE 



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LABRADOR 



CHAPTER I 

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION * 
By W. S. Wallace 

Labrador has not much history. So far as we know, it 
was first seen by European eyes in 986. From that time 
until about 1700 it almost enjoyed the happiness of the 
country which has no history. There is nothing to record 
but the voyages of navigators who came and saw the land, 
and sailed away. Labrador, said Jacques Cartier, was 
" the land God gave to Cain"; there was "not one cart- 
load of earth on the whole of it." No one came to live 
on the coast until about 1700. But if the history of Lab- 
rador is deficient in quantity, it is marked by an infinite 
variety. Across the stage there pass in succession the 
savage bands of the Eskimos, an earlier race than ours; 
the storm-driven " dragons" of the Vikings; the early 
navigators, Venetian, Portuguese, English; whalers and 
fishermen from the Basque Provinces, from France, from 
the west of England; French-Canadian seigneurs and 
concessionaires along the Cdte du Nord; English settlers 
after 1763 above the Strait of Belle Isle (among them 

1 1 wish to express my indebtedness to Mr. W. L. Grant, Beit Lec- 
turer in Colonial History in the University of Oxford, and Mr. H. P. 
Biggar, representative in Europe of the Dominion Archives, for assist- 
ance kindly rendered in the preparation of this chapter. — W. S. W. 

B 1 



2 LABRADOR 

the strange figure of an English staff-officer;) American 
privateers in 1778, French warships in 1796; the Hud- 
son's Bay Company ; Acadian refugees from the Magdalen 
Islands; and the devoted figures of the Moravian mis- 
sionaries. The dramatis personce are numerous, but the 
play has little plot or sequence ; it is more a pageant than 
a drama. 

The story begins in the year 986 in Iceland. Bjarni 
Herjulfson in that year, after a long absence on the high 
seas, came home to drink the Yuletide ale with his father. 
Finding that his father had gone with Eric the Red to 
Greenland, to found there that colony of which the ruins 
still stand upon the bleak and desolate coast, Bjarni 
weighed anchor and started off to Greenland after him. 
On the way he encountered foggy weather, and sailed on 
for many days without seeing sun or stars. When at 
length he sighted land, he was in waters of which he had 

never heard. 

" He was the first who ever burst 
Into that silent sea." 

The land was not the coast of fiords and glaciers for which 
he was looking; it was a shore without mountains, show- 
ing only small heights covered with dense woods. Bjarni 
put about and sailed to the north. The sky was now fair, 
and after sailing for five or six days he saw land again on 
the larboard, "but that land was high, mountainous, and 
covered with glaciers. " Then the wind rose, and they 
sailed four days to Herjulfsness. There is no doubt that 
the high, mountainous land, covered with glaciers, was the 
coast of Labrador. 

Nothing came of Bjarni Herjulfson's adventure till the 



INTRODUCTION 3 

year 1000, the annus mirabilis of mediaeval history, when 
Leif, the wise and stately son of Eric the Red, "made up 
his mind to go and see what the coasts to the south of 
Greenland were like." He sailed from Brattahlid with a 
crew of thirty-five men. " First they found the land which 
Bjarni had found last. Then sailed they to the land and 
cast anchor, and put off a boat and went ashore, and saw 
there was no grass. Mickle glaciers were over all the 
higher parts: but it was like a plain of rock from the 
glaciers to the sea, and it seemed to them that the land 
was good for nothing." Leif gave the place the name of 
Helluland (flat stone land) . He then sailed on to countries 
which he names Markland and Vinland. The location 
of these places has been a subject of the warmest contro- 
versy. Helluland, however, it is perhaps safe to say, was 
either Labrador or the northern coast of Newfoundland. 

This is not the place to describe the expeditions of the 
Northmen to Vinland, which took place after the return 
of Leif Ericson. At first there were several attempts to 
found a colony, but the hostility of the Indians and the 
jealousies of the settlers brought them to naught. In 
1121 Eric Gnupsson, who was appointed by Paschal II 
"bishop of Greenland and Vinland in partibus infidelium," 
went in search of Vinland; it is so recorded in at least six 
vellums. His is the last Viking expedition of which we- 
have authentic information. But it is extremely probable 
that there were voyages of which we have no record. To 
these daring sea-farers the sea had no terrors; in their 
beautiful open ships, which were probably stronger and 
certainly swifter than the Spanish vessels of the time of 
Columbus, they were accustomed to traverse long stretches 



4 LABRADOR 

of open sea without compass or astrolabe. They went 
everywhere. 1 In 1824 there were found on an island in 
Baffin Bay, in a region supposed to have been unvisited 
by man before the modern age of Arctic exploration, a 
stone inscription: "Erling Sighvatson and Bjarni Thor- 
harson and Eindrid Oddson raised these marks and cleared 
ground on Saturday before Ascension week, 1135." There 
is a strong probability that the Northmen made voyages 
to the coast of America oftener than we imagine. Timber 
was scarce in Greenland ; what more likely than that they 
should have cut their timber on the shores of Newfound- 
land or in places like Hamilton Inlet on the Labrador coast, 
where there is still timber of the finest sort ? 

The voyages of the Northmen, however, were quite 
barren of results of either historical or geographical im- 
portance. The very tradition of Vinland seems to have 
died out in Europe. There are, indeed, accounts of voy- 
ages made to the coast of America in the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries; but these are almost wholly, if not 
entirely, mythical. Antonio Zeno, a Venetian gentle- 
man, writing to his brother Carlo about 1400, tells of some 
fishermen who had been blown out to sea twenty-six 
years before, and had been thrown up on a strange coast, 
where they were well received by the people. The land 
was an island with a high mountain whence flowed four 
rivers. There was a populous city surrounded by walls; 
and the king had Latin books in his library which nobody 
could read. All kinds of metals abounded, and especially 

1 A stone bearing a Runic inscription and the date 1362, has been 
found in the heart of North America, at Kensington, Minnesota; but 
very strong doubts have been cast on its genuineness. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

gold. The name of the country was Estotiland. Some 
scholars have attempted to find grains of truth in this 
fisherman's yarn; Estotiland has been identified as New- 
foundland, and the populous city with walls about it has 
been explained as an Indian encampment surrounded by a 
palisade. But it is better to reject the story altogether; 
there is, indeed, strong evidence that the whole of the 
Zeno narrative is a forgery. Another supposed pre- 
Columbian voyage to America is that of the Polish pilot, 
John Szkolny, who is said to have sailed in 1476 to Green- 
land, in the service of Christian I of Denmark, and to have 
touched upon the coast of Labrador. This also has been 
shown to be a myth; no such voyage was ever made. 

It was the opinion of the late Mr. John Fiske that there 
were more voyages to America before 1492 than we have 
been wont to suspect. There has been, he pointed out, a 
great deal of blowing and drifting done at all times and on 
all seas. "Japanese junks have been driven ashore on 
the coasts of Oregon and California; and in 1500 Pedro 
Alvarez de Cabral, sailing down the coast of Africa, found 
himself on the shores of Brazil." He argued that occasional 
visitors such as these "may have come and did come 
before 1492 from the Old World to the New." It is a 
pleasing fancy. Unfortunately, the voice of authentic his- 
tory is silent and cannot be made to speak. 

The true discoverer of Labrador, for practical purposes, 
was John Cabot. Cabot was a Genoese by birth (and so a 
compatriot of Christopher Columbus), but in 1476 he be- 
came a naturalized citizen of Venice. In his earlier days 
he had traded as far east as La Tana, Alexandria, and 
even Mecca. There he had seen the spice caravans from 



b LABRADOR 

China. They seem to have set him thinking. Like other 
men of his day, he had " studied the sphere," as the saying 
went; and he seems to have conceived the idea, inde- 
pendently of Columbus, of reaching the country where the 
spices grew by sailing westward. In quest of merchants 
who would furnish him forth he went to the west of Eng- 
land. There he found, in the matter of the new route, 
affairs much farther advanced than he could have sup- 
posed. In 1480 two ships had sailed from Bristol to discover 
the fabulous islands of Brazil and the Seven Cities which 
were supposed to lie between Ireland and the east coast 
of Asia. The expedition was fruitless, but it shows that 
the project of the westward route was already in the air. 

From Bristol Cabot made a long series of attempts to 
reach the islands which the ships that sailed in 1480 had 
failed to find. He believed they would prove stepping- 
stones to the coast of Asia. Year after year expeditions 
went out under his direction; autumn after autumn they 
returned to Bristol empty-handed. Cabot's patrons were 
already beginning to withdraw their support, when in the 
summer of 1493 news came to England that Christopher 
Columbus, with three Spanish ships, had reached the 
islands of Asia. 1 Cabot renewed his efforts, and on May 2, 
1497, he sailed under royal patent on the voyage which 
brought him out on the shores of North America. 

The voyages of the Cabots have been a storm-centre of 

1 The reason why Columbus succeeded where Cabot failed, is that 
Columbus crossed the Atlantic in a region where the trade-winds blow 
steadily from the east ; whereas the tract of ocean from Ireland to 
America is one of the most unquiet in the world, and a vessel on its 
westward course in those latitudes has to contend, not only with ad- 
verse winds and broken weather, but with frequent and dense fogs. 



INTRODUCTION 7 

controversy for many years. The question where John 
Cabot had his landfall in 1497 depends almost wholly on 
the interpretation of the old maps. The fact that these 
charts were drawn to magnetic meridians, and not like our 
maps to the true meridian, sometimes alters the lie of a 
coast or the direction of a course by over 45°. Apart 
from this, also, mediaeval reckonings were often far astray. 
Chronometers had not yet been invented, and it was only 
on rare occasions that longitude could be reckoned with 
the least degree of accuracy. Determinations of latitude 
were fairly correct when made on dry land, but made 
from the deck of a vessel with the imperfect instruments 
of that period they were liable to be wrong. Consequently, 
it is very difficult to be sure of the course to which a med- 
iaeval mariner held. It used to be thought that in 1497 
John Cabot's landfall was on Labrador. It is now cer- 
tain that wherever his landfall was, it was not there. Prob- 
ably it was on the shores of Cape Breton Island. 

It was on his second voyage, in 1498, that Cabot touched 
at Labrador. A Canadian scholar, Mr. H. P. Biggar, in 
his Voyages of the Cabots and Corte-Reals, has attempted 
a brilliant reconstruction of this voyage. He thinks 
that Cabot explored first the coast of Greenland, and that 
then he sailed south along the coast of Labrador. He 
attempts even to identify the places which Cabot de- 
scribes; Hamilton Inlet, for instance, and the Strait of 
Belle Isle, which Cabot took to be a deep bay. Cabot 
seems to have done some bartering with the Indians, for 
the Corte-Reals three years later found the natives in 
possession of a broken gilded sword and a pair of ear-rings, 
both apparently of Venetian manufacture. 



8 LABBADOB 

John Cabot probably regarded his expeditions as finan- 
cial failures. He had set sail expecting to bring back 
the wealth of Ormuz and of Ind; he had found only the 
rock-bound coasts of North America. He had not even 
been able to discover the passage to the country where 
the spices grew. King Henry VII and the merchants of 
Bristol withdrew from a venture that swallowed up so 
much capital and offered such small profits; and shortly 
afterwards John Cabot died. 

Others, however, were not long in following in his wake. 
In the summer of 1500 Gaspar Corte-Real, a Portuguese 
gentleman from the island of Terceira in the Azores, set 
sail from Lisbon for the coasts which Cabot had discovered. 
On his first voyage Corte-Real explored only the coast of 
Greenland. On his second, which was made the next 
year, he came out at Labrador in about 58° of north lati- 
tude. The coast here is 3000 feet high, and there is nothing 
to the north but a barren, precipitous shore of the same 
sort. Corte-Real therefore turned south, no doubt in hope 
of reaching in that direction the land of spices. As he 
followed the shore, he explored every bay and inlet. He 
examined Hamilton Inlet as far up as the Narrows, and he 
seems to have explored Hawke Bay and the Gilbert and 
Alexis rivers. The Strait of Belle Isle, however, he mis- 
took (as Cabot had done) for an ordinary inlet; it re- 
mained for others to discover its real nature. He named 
a number of bays and capes, but nearly all his names 
have been superseded. Some have died out, and some 
have been shifted by ignorant geographers down to the 
Newfoundland coast. Cape Freels (Cabo de Frey Luis) 
is an example of the latter class; originally it was a cape 



INTRODUCTION 9 

on the Labrador, named possibly after the chaplain of 
Corte-Real's ships. 

In one of the inlets of Labrador Corte-Real came upon 
a band of Nasquapee Indians, a tribe which still inhabits 
that neighbourhood. The African slave-trade, which was 
carried on principally from Lisbon, had taught the Portu- 
guese to look upon all natives as fair spoil ; and the sailors 
kidnapped some sixty of the Indians, and stowed them 
away below hatches. Two of the three ships were sent 
back to Lisbon with the Indians on board; they arrived 
there in little more than a month, and their arrival created 
the greatest excitement. King Manoel was delighted. 
Not only did the Indians promise to prove excellent slaves, 
all the more valuable since the African negro had become 
so wary that his capture was a matter of difficulty, but the 
new country produced, also, timber in abundance, which 
could be brought to Portugal at the cost of a month's 
voyage. 

This slave-hunting episode has been fixed on by some 
historians as affording the true explanation of the name 
Terra Labrador, or Terra del Laboratore. King Manoel 
had expressed the opinion that the new slaves would be 
" excellent for labour"; obviously "Terra del Labora- 
tore" meant "labourers' coast," or, as we might say, "slave 
coast." Unfortunately, there are difficulties about this 
ingenious theory. In the first place, the words del Lab- 
oratore are in the singular; in the second place, the Por- 
tuguese word llavrador does not mean a labourer, but 
something like a yeoman farmer; and in the third place, 
the original Labrador was not what we know now as Lab- 
rador — it was Greenland. In nearly all the maps of the 



10 LABRADOR 

first half of the sixteenth century Greenland is Labrador, 
it was only owing to the fact that the early geographers 
thought that Davis Strait was a gulf, and that the main- 
land continued all the way, that the name got shifted 
down to the northeast coast of North America. For many 
years what is now known as Labrador was merely desig- 
nated " Terra Corterialis" 

The real explanation is to be found in the Wolfenbuttel 
map of 1534, which bears along the coast of Greenland 
the legend: " Country of Labrador, which was discovered 
by the English of the port of Bristol, and because he who 
first gave notice of seeing it was a farmer (llavrador) from 
the Azores, this name became attached to it." We have 
even a suspicion as to who this llavrador was. He was 
probably one Joao Fernandes, who accompanied Cabot 
on his second voyage, who was born on the same island 
of the Azores as Gaspar Corte-Real, and who was probably 
instrumental in 1500 in persuading Corte-Real to make 
his first expedition. In 1499 he himself obtained letters 
patent from King Manoel, but he does not seem to have 
used them. 

On his third voyage, in 1502, Gaspar Corte-Real was 
lost. His brother Miguel went in search of him, and he 
too disappeared. No trace of the two brothers has ever 
been found. They may have gone down in the broad 
Atlantic, or they may have been lured to their fate by the 
unforgetting Indians. They pass from history. 

For the next fifty years the exploration of Labrador 
was at a standstill. So far as the contour of the coast is 
concerned, the map of Sal vat de Piles trina (1503) is nearer 
the truth than any map up to Mercator's great chart of 



INTRODUCTION 11 

1569. The first official explorer to reach Labrador after 
Corte-Real was John Rut. Rut was an officer of the 
incipient Royal Navy of Henry VIII; in 1527 he set out 
to discover the regions of the Great Khan by going " far- 
ther to the west." One of his two ships was wrecked near 
the Strait of Belle Isle, where he encountered "many 
great islands of ice," and had to turn back. In 1534 
Jacques Cartier explored the coast inside the Strait of 
Belle Isle. It has been said that he discovered the Strait 
of Belle Isle, but it is certain that the Strait was well 
known before 1534. It was called "le destroict de la 
baye des Chasteaux" (the strait off Chateau Bay). Car- 
tier's comment on the coast has already been quoted. 
He also said, however, that "if the land were as good as 
the harbours, it would be a good country. " 

The results of later voyages may be briefly summarized. 
In 1577 Martin Frobisher sailed along the coast of northern 
Labrador. "Foure days coasting along this land," he 
says, "we found no sign of habitation." "All along this 
coast yce lieth, as a continuall bulwarke, and so defendeth 
the country, that those that would land there, incur great 
danger." In 1586 Davis spent a month on the Labrador 
coast, searching for a northwest passage. Besides the 
openings already known, Cumberland Strait, Frobisher's 
Strait, and Hudson's Strait, Davis rediscovered Davis 
Inlet in 56° and Hamilton Inlet in 54° 30'. It is to him 
that we owe the most exact knowledge of the coast until 
modern times. In 1606 John Knight arrived on the Lab- 
rador coast in latitude 56° 25'. He and his men were 
attacked by the Eskimos, and only with great diffi- 
culty were able to beat them off. Eight years later a 



12 LABRADOR 

Captain Gibbons was ice-bound for twenty weeks in "a 
Bay called by his company Gibbons his Hole"; it is 
supposed to have been what is now Nain Bay. In 1610 
Henry Hudson passed through Hudson's Straits to Hud- 
son's Bay, and so demonstrated the true nature of the 
Labrador peninsula. 

In the seventeenth century the French Canadians began 
to explore the Labrador coast. In 1657 Jean Bourdon of 
Quebec tried to reach Hudson's Bay by sea. He sailed 
up the Atlantic seaboard until he reached 55° north lati- 
tude; there he was compelled to turn back on account of 
the icebergs. Twenty-five years later Jolliet, the discov- 
erer of the Mississippi, also sailed on a voyage of exploration 
up the Labrador coast. The chart which he made of 
Hudson's Bay and Labrador is still preserved in the 
Archives of the Marine at Paris. 

It is, however, only within recent times that anything 
like an exact cartographical knowledge of the coast of 
Labrador has been arrived at. This has been due, on the 
one hand, to the British admiralty surveys, the first of 
which was carried out by the great Captain Cook, and on 
the other hand to the excellent charts . of the Moravian 
missionaries. The interior of Labrador is still to a large 
extent unexplored. 

The great industry of the coast has always been its 
fisheries. In the middle ages fish played a much more 
important part in the economic life of Europe than it does 
to-day. The number of fast days in the year, and the way 
in which they were observed all over Europe, made fish 
one of the great staples of existence. Until the sixteenth 



INTRODUCTION 13 

century Iceland was the scene of the most extensive 
fisheries. In 1497, however, John Cabot came back from 
"the new-found isle" with glowing accounts of the cod- 
fish which abounded there. Sebastian Cabot, who had a 
vivid imagination, vowed that the shoals of codfish were 
so numerous "they sumtymes stayed his shippes." En- 
terprising fishermen almost immediately set out for the 
new fishing-grounds. They appear in the records for the 
first time in 1504, the year after the last voyage of the 
Corte-Reals. At first they seem to have come mainly 
from Breton and Norman ports. When Queen Joanna of 
Spain, in 1511, wanted pilots for the Bacallaos (New- 
foundland), she went to Brittany for them. And in 1534, 
when Jacques Cartier was passing through the Strait of 
Belle Isle, he met a fishing vessel from La Rochelle looking- 
for the harbour of "Brest." This was a harbour near the 
mouth of the Eskimo River, which had obviously been 
named by Breton fishermen; it was already, apparently, 
a rendezvous. 

Contemporaneously with the French fishermen, came 
the Basque whalers from the Bay of Biscay. The asser- 
tion has even been made that, in their whaling voyages 
in the north Atlantic, the Basques discovered and fished 
at Labrador as early as 1470 ; but this story may be safely 
discounted. What is certain is that from 1525 to about 
1700 they frequented the Strait of Belle Isle and the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence in considerable numbers. As they soon 
discovered, the whales followed down the cold Labrador 
current and passed through the Strait into the Gulf in 
great abundance. 

Portuguese fishermen followed in the track of the Corte- 



14 LABRADOR 

Reals; and the voyage of Estevan Gomez conducted the 
Spaniards also to the northwest fisheries. What is now 
Bradore Bay was long known as Baie des Espagnols; and 
in 1704 there were still to be seen there the ruins of a Span- 
ish fishing establishment. 

The English were slower in recognizing the value of 
the new fisheries than the French or Spanish. They did 
not realize at first that Cabot had opened to them a source 
of revenue more valuable than the fabled wealth of Cathay. 
But gradually they too awoke to the possibilities of the 
new fisheries. They threw themselves into competition 
with the French, and appropriated to themselves a large 
part of the fishing-grounds. The French were driven back 
to the west coast of Newfoundland, along what is known as 
"the French shore." A study of the names on the map of 
Newfoundland will show the limit of their fishing opera- 
tions; from Bonne Esperance to Cape Charles, the names 
are almost wholly French. It was not until about 1763 
that the English entered upon the Labrador fisheries at all. 

A part of the history of Labrador which still remains 
to be worked up is the story of the French Canadian 
settlements along the so-called Quebec Labrador. No 
full account of these settlements has yet been published; 
the facts lie buried in the archives at Paris and Ottawa. 
Most of what has found its way into print has been of the 
most unreliable and mythical character. Nothing more 
instructive could be found, for instance, of the way in which 
history is sometimes manufactured than the legend of the 
town of Brest. In 1608 there was published in Lyons, 
France, a little book, the only surviving copy of which is 



INTRODUCTION 15 

in the Lenox Library, New York. It was entitled Copy 
of a Letter sent from New France, or Canada, by the Sieur 
de Combes, a Gentleman of Poitou, to a Friend, in which 
are described briefly the Marvels, Excellence and Wealth of 
the Country, together with the Appearance and Manners of 
the Inhabitants, the Glory of the French, and the Hope there 
is of Christianizing America. This letter gives the follow- 
ing account of Brest : — 

"We desired first to go and see the Sieur de Dongeon, 
who is governor, and resides ordinarily at Brest, the prin- 
cipal town of the whole country, well provisioned, large 
and strongly fortified, peopled by about fifty thousand 
men, and furnished with all that is necessary to enrich 
a good-sized town." 

When it is remembered that this letter was written in 
the year in which Champlain founded Quebec, it will be 
seen immediately that it is a fairy tale of the wildest sort. 
Brest was never anything at this time but a convenient 
harbour for fishermen; and the Sieur de Combes and the 
Sieur de Dongeon are probably people who never ex- 
isted. Somebody, however, must have taken the account 
au grand serieux; for in 1638 the following account of 
Labrador appeared in Lewes Roberts' Merchants' Map of 
Commerce printed at London : — ■ 

" The seventh is Terra Corterialis ; on the South whereof 
runs that famous river of Caneda, rising out of the hill 
Hombuedo, running nine hundred miles, and found navi- 
gable for eight hundred thereof. . . . The chiefe Towne 
thereof is Brest, Cabomarso, and others of little note." 

Cabomarso is obviously a cape named by the Portu- 






16 LABRADOR 

guese; but Brest is the "principal town" of the Sieur de 
Combes. The finishing touches were put on the myth 
by a Mr. Samuel Robertson, who lived on the Labrador 
coast in the first half of the nineteenth century. In a 
paper read before the Geographical and Historical Society 
of Quebec in 1843, he gave a graphic picture of Brest in 
its palmy days. "I estimate," he said, "that at one time 
it contained two hundred houses, besides stores, etc., and 
perhaps 1000 inhabitants in the winter, which would be 
trebled during the summer. Brest was at the height of 
its prosperity about the year 1600, and about thirty years 
later the whole tribe of the Eskimos were totally extir- 
pated or expelled from that region. After this the town 
began to decay, and towards the close of the century the 
name was changed to Bradore." In 1630, he goes on to 
relate, a grant en seigneurie of four leagues of the coast 
embracing the town was made to the Count de Courte- 
manche, who was married to a daughter of King Henry IV 
of France. 

Et voila justement comme on ecrit Vhistoire. The whole 
story is a myth and a fairy tale. There was, it is true, a 
De Courtemanche on the Labrador coast from 1704-1716, 
but he was not a count, nor did he hold any land en seig- 
neurie, and he was married to the daughter of a tanner 
named Charest at Levis. Moreover, we have De Courte- 
manche's account of the coast when he came there in 1704. 
He does not mention the town of Brest; apparently he 
had never heard of it. But in the harbour he found an 
establishment of Frenchmen and a blockhouse, about half 
a league from the mouth of the Eskimo River. This 
was just a century after the time when "Brest was at 



INTRODUCTION 17 

the height of its prosperity." It is indeed probable that 
Mr. Robertson did not know where Brest was ; he confuses 
it with Bradore Bay, which is eight or ten leagues farther 
along the coast. And yet the story has died hard; it is 
to be found in some of the latest books, in Professor Pack- 
ard's Labrador Coast (1891), and in Judge Prowse's His- 
tory of Newfoundland (1896). 

The exploitation of Labrador by the French Canadians 
really began in 1661. In that year the Compagnie des 
Indes granted to Francois Bissot the Isle aux (Eufs en 
seigneurie, together with fishing rights over nearly the whole 
of the Quebec Labrador, from the Seven Isles to Bradore 
Bay. This was what was known afterwards as the Seig- 
neurie of Mingan. Francois Bissot was a Norman immi- 
grant who had come out to Canada some time between 
1641-1647. He was a man of enterprise and ideas. He was 
the first Canadian to enter upon the tanning of leather, an 
industry which is to-day perhaps the most important in 
Quebec. He was also one of the very first Canadians who 
attempted to establish sedentary fisheries in the Gulf. 
At the Isle aux (Eufs, and later at Mingan on the mainland, 
he founded posts at which he carried on fishing, sealing, 
and trading with great success. Between his farm and his 
tannery at Levis and his fishing-posts on the Labrador 
it was not long before he made his fortune. He was him- 
self of bourgeois extraction; but he married his daughters 
to members of the colony's ruling class. The noblesse 
and the bourgeoisie joined hands. 

One of Bissot 's daughters married Louis Jolliet, the 
discoverer of the Mississippi. His marriage into the Bissot 
family drew Jolliet's energies eastward. His exploration 



18 LABRADOR 

of the coasts of Labrador has already been referred to. 
As a reward for his discoveries he was granted the island of 
Anticosti, a barren fief, of which he was the first seigneur. 
When Bissot died, Jolliet was one of his heirs. He became 
engaged in a dispute with the other heirs which was the 
precursor of a long line of disputes about the Bissot seig- 
neurie, litigation over which was only ended in 1892 by 
the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council 
in the case of the Labrador Company vs. the Queen. Jol- 
liet's last years were tragic. He endured great losses 
from the English invasion of 1690, and afterwards was 
actually suffering from poverty. He died about 1700, 
neglected and forgotten, on some island of the Labrador 
coast. 

Jolliet's example without doubt induced others to go 
and spy out the land of Labrador. It was about 1702 that 
De Courtemanche obtained his concession near the Strait 
of Belle Isle. Augustin Legardeur, Sieur de Courtemanche, 
was a lieutenant in the troops of the marine. He spent the 
early years of his life in the west in the Indian wars, and 
acquired there a reputation as a leader. In 1697, however, 
he married the widow of Pierre Gratien Martel de Brouague ; 
she was the granddaughter of old Francois Bissot, and 
family ties drew De Courtemanche, as they had drawn 
Jolliet, to the east of Canada. It has been usual to describe 
De Courtemanche's concession as a seigneurie; but such 
language is inaccurate. It was merely a grant of fishing 
and trading rights for a number of years. The policy of 
the government was evidently to leave its hands free for 
the future with regard to the Labrador coast. The only 
true seigneurie east, of the Mingan Islands was "the fief 



INTRODUCTION 19 

St. Paul in the country of the Eskimos"; and about this 
seigneurie not much is known. It was granted in 1706 to 
Amador Godefroy de St. Paul. In 1725 Godefroy de St. 
Paul sent one of his wife's relatives to render foi et hom- 
mage for him at the castle of St. Louis in Quebec. But 
after Godefroy 's death it is probable that the family 
ceased to occupy the fief ; certainly the fief never arrived 
at any degree of importance. 1 

During the years 1700-1760 it rained concessions on 
the Cote du Nord. Grants of fishing and trading rights 
were made to the Sieurs Riverin, De la Chesnaye, Constan- 
ts, De la Valtrie (who had married a daughter of Fran- 
cois Bissot), De Leigne, Boucault and Foucault, De la 
Fontaine, De Lanouilles, Marsal, Hocquart, Tache, Pom- 
mereau, Vincent, De Beaujeu, and Estebe, as well as to 
Mme. de Boishebert and the widow Fernel. 2 Hamilton 
Inlet (Baie des Esquimaux) was granted at different times 
to traders and merchants, on condition of its being ex- 
plored; but none of the grantees seem to have complied 
with the condition. It is noteworthy, however, that in 
1779 Major Cartwright reports the discovery near Hamil- 
ton Inlet of "the ruins of three French settlements." 
And we know from Jeffrey's Northwest Passage that 
in 1752 the French traded with the Eskimos at Ham- 
ilton Inlet for whalebone and oil. Perhaps the French 
Canadians went north of the Strait of Belle Isle oftener 
than we hear about. 

Inside the Strait, however, there is no question about 

1 I have to acknowledge here the kind assistance of Professor W. B. 
Munro, of Harvard University. 

2 This list does not pretend to be perfect. 



20 LABRADOR 

the number of fishing-posts which existed. Not only 
were there cod fisheries and seal fisheries, there were even 
salmon and porpoise fisheries. The seal fishery was espe- 
cially important. It supplied the oil which was used for 
giving light in Canada and for dressing hides in Europe. 
In 1744, we learn from an old table of products, several 
thousand barrels of oil were exported from Labrador to 
France. In the industrial life of New France Labrador 
played a much larger part than has been usually 
realized. 

The Jesuits did not reach Labrador. In 1730 Father 
Pierre Laure, serving at Chekoutimi on the Saguenay, 
wrote to his superior: "I think it would be a good thing 
if your Reverence would permit me to go to Labrador, 
where I know that great results can be obtained." But 
his petition was not granted. The only priest, so far as 
we know, who worked on the Labrador coast, was the 
Abbe Martin, who petitioned in 1727 to be allowed to set 
up a seal fishery there. The memorandum of the Gov- 
ernor and Intendant on the subject throws light on the 
conditions of the coast in 1727 ; they write : — 

"We cannot answer immediately in the matter of the 
Sieur Martin's request to set up an establishment of the 
Labrador. 

"This region scarcely seems suitable for a man of his 
cloth, there being only rocks in this place. The dissipa- 
tion which a trading-post brings about scarcely suits a 
missionary. 

"These proposals show good intentions. We believe 
there is nothing behind them. But the matters which he 
proposes are too delicate not to require time for considera- 
tion." 



INTRODUCTION 21 

Whether the Abbe Martin's request was granted, we do 
not know. He is to us merely a nominis umbra. We 
know nothing more about him than that he was " serving 
on the Labrador." 

Order was kept on the coast by the Sieur de Courte- 
manche, who bore the official title of commandant. At 
Baie des Phelypeaux (now Bradore Bay) he had a fort 
called Fort Ponchartrain. He exercised magisterial pow- 
ers, and sent in an annual report to the president of the 
Navy Board at Paris. His chief difficulty was with the 
Eskimos, who persisted in destroying the boats and 
stages of the fishermen, and in murdering an occasional 
white man. De Courtemanche's conciliatory policy toward 
the natives is deserving of notice, especially as it stands 
in sharp contrast with the treatment of the Indians 
by the English across the Strait in Newfoundland. There 
it was considered good sport to shoot an Indian like a 
deer. This is not the only case in which the French 
proved themselves superior to the English in their rela- 
tions with the natives. 

De Courtemanche died in 1716, and his place as com- 
mandant of the coast was taken by his step-son, Francois 
Mart el de Brouague. De Brouague held the post until 
the conquest, though in 1759 he was so old and worn out 
that the minister proposed to replace him by another. 
He too had difficulty with the Eskimos, and he seems 
not to have been so successful as his step-father in his 
measures. He was, however, a person of importance in 
New France ; he married in 1732 Louise-Madeleine Mari- 
auchau-d'Esglis, sister of the eighth bishop of Quebec, 
and his daughter was that beauty of whom Garneau tells, 



22 LABRADOR 

who, when presented at the French court, rilled with admi« 
ration the young king, Louis XVI. 

The conquest of Canada in 1763 by the English worked a 
revolution on the Labrador coast. Shortly after the con- 
quest many of the French-Canadian gentry went back 
to France; we know, for instance, that in 1767 Captain 
Croizille de Courtemanche, half-brother of M. de Brouague, 
went back. At the same time there flocked into the coun- 
try a number of English and Scotch adventurers — "four 
hundred and fifty contemptible sutlers and traders/' as Gov- 
ernor Murray called them. Some of these men bought up 
the concessions along the Labrador coast which the French 
Canadians were leaving. Between 1759 and 1808 they 
acquired nearly the whole coast from the Mingan Islands 
to Bradore Bay, and formed what was known as the Lab- 
rador Company, the leading spirit in which was Mathew 
Lymburner, the Quebec merchant who spoke so ably at 
the bar of the House of Commons in Westminster against 
the Constitutional Act of 1791. 

From 1763 also dates the first authentic account of a 
settled English fishery between the Strait of Belle Isle 
and Hamilton Inlet. Under the French regime Canada 
had included all Labrador; but by the proclamation of 
1763 its eastern boundary became the River St. John. 
Labrador and Anticosti were annexed to Newfoundland. 
Adventurers immediately began to establish themselves 
in the new territory. Captain Nicholas Darby, of Bristol, 
set up near Cape Charles, and the firm of Noble and Pinson, 
long well known on the coast, began to do business at 
Temple Bay. 



INTRODUCTION 23 

This, however, was not at all the object which the Eng- 
lish government had wished to accomplish. It had been 
their intention to put the Labrador fishery under the same 
regulations as the Newfoundland fishery. It was to be 
preserved as an "open and free fishery" for the Dorset 
and Devon fishing fleets, and was to be governed by 
fishing admiral rules. The establishment of sedentary 
fisheries immediately caused trouble. It was the old 
story, so familiar in the case of Newfoundland itself, of a 
struggle between the settlers on the shore, who claimed 
the right of exclusive fishing, and the fishermen who came 
over the Atlantic from English ports, and who wanted 
the fisheries and landing-places reserved for themselves. 
Sir Hugh Palliser, the governor of Newfoundland, strove 
energetically to carry out the new regulations. He applied 
to the home government for naval reinforcements, "for 
the purpose of enforcing the fishery laws and preserving 
peace and some degree of order amongst the fisheries, 
especially amongst the mixed multitudes now resorting 
to the new northern banks about the Strait of Belle Isle, 
composed of about 5000 of the very scum of the most 
disorderly people from the different colonies." He built 
a blockhouse in Chateau Bay, and garrisoned it with an 
officer and twenty men. But his measures were in vain. 
He had to encounter, not only the opposition of the few 
English and French-Canadian settlers on the coast, the 
latter armed with their title-deeds acquired under the 
French governors, but also the hostility of the Canadian 
and New England fishermen, who were excluded from the 
fisheries. The feeling among the New England fishermen 
was especially strong; their exclusion from the Labrador 



24 LABRADOR 

fisheries was one of the lesser causes which helped to bring 
about the American war, and it explains some episodes 
in the naval history of the war. In 1774 Labrador was 
given back to Canada. It was not until 1809 that it was 
finally reannexed to Newfoundland. 

A trader who came to Labrador in 1770 was Major 
George Cartwright. He had been aide-de-camp to the 
Marquis of Granby in the Seven Years' War; but failing 
to obtain promotion, he resigned his commission, and went 
into business on the coast of Labrador. He has left us 
his journals, in three large folio volumes. The great ma- 
jority of the entries are trivial. "I went out a-shooting," 
he says on September 29, 1772, " but saw nothing." Yet 
the diary as a whole gives a vivid and minute account of 
the life at a post on the Labrador in 1770. The drunken- 
ness, the brutality, the license, are all depicted without 
reticence. Cartwright, who was a man of magnificent 
courage, treated the Irishmen and Indians under him like 
slaves. "I gave MacCarthy," he says, " twenty-seven 
lashes with a small dog-whip on his bare back, and in- 
tended to have made up the number thirty-nine; but as 
he then fainted, I stopped and released him; when he 
thanked me on his knees for my lenity." "I broke the 
stock of my Hanoverian rifle," he says at another time, " by 
striking a dog with it." So far as women were concerned, 
Cartwright' s principles were frankly immoral. Yet he 
was religious after the fashion of his day. On Easter 
Sunday, he says, " I read prayers to my family both in the 
forenoon and afterroon." And after a providential es- 
cape from danger he writes : " We could attribute all these 
things to nothing but the effect of the immediate interpo- 



INTRODUCTION 25 

sition of the DIVINITY, who had been graciously pleased 
to hear our prayers, and grant our petitions; and I hope 
I shall never be of a contrary way of thinking." He was 
a man of strict honour; and when he failed in business, 
he refused to go into bankruptcy, and preferred to carry 
the burden of his debt in the hope of paying it off. 

He had several trading-posts at intervals along the 
coast from Cape Charles to Sandwich Bay. Under him 
he seems to have had at times as many as seventy-five 
or eighty men, mostly Irishmen of the lowest description. 
He did not limit himself to sealing, and fishing for cod and 
salmon, but he tried by all means possible to cultivate 
trade with the Indians and Eskimos. His policy in 
this regard is one of the most laudable things about him. 
Three years before his arrival on the coast the Eskimos, 
with whom murder was a pastime, killed three of Captain 
Darby's men at Charles River. The relations between 
the English and the Eskimos after this threatened to 
degenerate into the guerilla warfare which ended in New- 
foundland in the extinction of the Beothuks. Cartwright 
saw that this policy was a wrong one, and by his firm and 
kindly attitude toward the Eskimos he gradually gained 
their confidence. Twice he took Eskimos back with him 
to England, and tried to train them up as go-betweens, 
but they almost all died from the smallpox. Their death 
was to Cartwright one of his greatest disappointments. 
Through ill luck his policy was not so successful as he 
hoped it would be, but it must be said that he was work- 
ing along the right lines. 

Cartwright was not a good business man, and his adven- 
ture was not a success. He suffered from the hostility 



26 LABRADOR 

of Noble and Pinson, "who have been my inveterate 
enemies ever since I came to the coast," and his buildings 
were several times destroyed by fire. But the great 
calamity which overtook him was the visit of the American 
privateer Minerva in August, 1778. At one o'clock on 
the morning of August 27, he was alarmed by a loud 
rapping at his door; he opened it, and a body of armed 
men rushed in; they were, they said, from the Minerva 
privateer, of Boston, in New England, commanded by John 
Grimes. They made Cartwright their prisoner, and took 
possession of everything. At nine o'clock Cartwright 
was taken on board, and received by Captain Grimes, 
who was " the son of a superannuated boatswain of Ports- 
mouth." Cartwright was not favourably impressed by the 
first lieutenant and the surgeon, whom he describes as 
"two of as great villains as any unhanged." He found 
that his possessions at Charles Harbour and Ranger 
Lodge had already been plundered. An expedition had 
been sent off to Caribou Castle to plunder there; and it 
was only by talking about a British frigate which he 
expected that he frightened them from sending to Paradise 
and White Bear River. They robbed him of everything 
except a small quantity of provisions and a chest of bag- 
gage, which Grimes returned ("but many things were 
pillaged out of it"). Cartwright lost also about one-half 
of his men. The Minerva was short-handed, and Grimes 
offered a share of the booty to any who would enter with 
him. Nearly thirty-five men, mostly Irish and Dutch, ac- 
cepted his offer. It is needless to say, none of them ever saw 
any prize-money ; when they reached Boston, they were all 
thrown into prison, where they languished for several months. 



INTRODUCTION 27 

Cartwright computed his losses at about £14,000. 
Fortunately, however, his brig, with all the salt and most 
of the other goods which the Americans had carried away 
in her, was retaken on her passage to Boston, and his 
losses proved not so great as he had imagined they would 
be. Others suffered more severely than he did. Noble 
and Pinson at Temple Bay lost three vessels and all their 
stores; and two merchants named Slade and Seydes lost 
a vessel each at Charles Harbour. The next year a small 
American privateer of four guns entered Battle Harbour, 
and captured a sloop there with about twenty-two tuns 
of seal oil on board. The stores on the shore, belonging 
to Slade of Twillingate, were destroyed. The result was 
that " everybody on this side of Trinity was in the utmost 
distress for provisions from the depredations of the priva- 
teers, as no vessels had arrived from England." Cart- 
wright himself had to cut his men down to short rations 
during the winter. 

In 1786 Cartwright returned to England, and his diary 
closes. In the last entries are some interesting notes on 
the Strait of Belle Isle. At both Forteau Bay and Blanc 
Sablon Cartwright founded establishments of fishing com- 
panies from Jersey. Behind the Isle de Bois he saw 
several American whalers lying at anchor. "Not having 
had any success with whales, they were catching codfish. 
As they dare not carry their fish to the European markets, 
for fear of the Barbary rovers, they are sent up to their 
own back settlements, where they fetch good prices." 
The journal ends with a poetical epistle to Labrador. 

Ten years after Cartwright left the coast Labrador was 
again the victim of a hostile visitation. In August, 1796, 



28 LABRADOR 

Admiral Richery, one of the ablest of the admirals of the 
French republic, made a flying visit from Cadiz to the 
Banks of Newfoundland. After having wrought cruel 
havoc among the fishermen on the Banks, he despatched 
three of his ships, the Duquesne, the Censeur, and the 
Friponne, under Commodore Allemand, to visit the coast 
of Labrador. Allemand was delayed by wind and fog, 
and when he arrived at Chateau Bay, most of the fishing 
vessels had left for Europe. Several ships, however, still 
remained, among them part of the rich convoy of peltries 
returning from Hudson's Bay. These Allemand captured. 
He then sent a summons to the commandant of Fort York, 
the blockhouse which Governor Palliser had built at 
Chateau Bay, demanding his surrender. When the com- 
mandant refused to surrender, Allemand opened fire on 
the fort, and soon silenced its fourteen guns. The English 
thereupon took to the woods, but not before they had set 
fire to all the buildings and stores at the post. The French 
landed, but found " nothing but ashes"; after a vain 
attempt to pursue the English garrison in the woods, they 
put to sea again, taking with them those prizes which they 
had not sunk or burned. They had done as much damage 
as it was possible for them to do. The people of Labrador 
have small reason to love the warships of revolutionary 
states. 

In 1809 Labrador was given back to Newfoundland. 
The arrangement was once more, however, found to be 
unsatisfactory. The Cote du Nord was really a part of 
Lower Canada, and it did not fit in, either legally or socially, 
with the system of government in Newfoundland. The 



INTRODUCTION 29 

result was that in 1825 that part of Labrador which is 
now known as the Quebec Labrador, stretching from the 
River St. John to Blanc Sablon, was reannexed to Lower 
Canada. This is the arrangement which governs the 
present condition. Unfortunately, however, the boun- 
daries of Labrador have never been clearly defined. The 
jurisdiction of the governor of Newfoundland, as defined 
in the letters patent regularly issued up to 1876, includes 
"all the coast of Labrador, from the entrance of Hudson's 
Straits to a line to be drawn due north and south from 
Anse Sablon [sic] on the said coast to the fifty-second 
degree of north latitude." The only conclusion which 
may be drawn from this document is that the advisers 
of the British crown, when they drew it up, were, as usual, 
not looking at the map. Anse Sablon is a place which 
does not exist, though Blanc Sablon does; and just where 
the entrance to Hudson's Strait is, might well, as Sir John 
Haselrig said, be the subject for a month's debate. It 
might be anywhere from Cape Chudleigh to Fort Chimo. 

The result of the ambiguity in the terms by which the 
boundary of Labrador is defined, has been a dispute be- 
tween Quebec and Newfoundland which is still pending. 
Canada has issued a map coloured red right to the Atlantic 
seaboard; and Newfoundland has retorted by colouring 
nearly the whole of the Labrador peninsula green. The 
question will probably be decided by the Judicial Com- 
mittee of the Privy Council. 

In 1811 an act of Parliament was passed authorizing 
the holding of surrogate courts in Labrador. Nothing 
was done to give effect to this act until 1827, when Sir 
Thomas Cochrane, the governor, issued a proclamation 



30 LABRABOB 

setting up a court of civil jurisdiction. A sheriff was ap- 
pointed for the coast, and a vessel was chartered to take 
the judge on his circuit; but it was soon found that the 
undertaking was more expensive than advantageous. In 
1833 the court was abolished. 

Meanwhile a change had been taking place in the fisheries. 
In 1818 a convention was made between the United States 
and Great Britain, by which the inhabitants of the United 
States gained, among other things, the right of taking 
fish of any kind " on the coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks " 
of the Labrador. American fishermen took advantage 
of this convention in great numbers. In 1820 Captain 
Robinson, of H.M.S. Favourite, reported "530 sail of them 
this year." The English fishermen began to suffer from 
their competition. Both the American and French fish- 
ermen received bounties from their governments : the first 
in the shape of a drawback on the salt used ; and the sec- 
ond in the shape of premiums which were so regulated as 
to, make 20 francs per quintal the minimum price received. 
The American fisherman also fished "in his own vessel, 
built by himself, with timber grown on his own land, and 
with provisions supplied by his own farm." There was 
great irritation against the government because of their 
admission of the Americans into what was considered the 
richest part of the fisheries. It was felt that England was 
being generous to the prodigal son at the expense of the son 
who stayed at home. Such a feeling has not died out in 
Newfoundland yet, as recent events have shown. 

Population has never increased by leaps and bounds on 
the Labrador coast. In 1841, however, Samuel Robertson 
said that on his part of the coast there were over two hun- 



INTRODUCTION 31 

dred and fifty settlers. In 1848 the bishop of Newfound- 
land visited Labrador. "No bishop or clergyman of our 
Church/' he said, "has ever been along this coast before, 
and yet the inhabitants are almost all professed members 
of our Church and of English descent." The good man 
found plenty of work to do. He consecrated several 
graveyards. At one settlement "great numbers were 
married, and both here and elsewhere an offering [of four 
dollars] was very cheerfully paid." At Battle Harbour 
fifty-seven children were admitted into the Church. 

The statement is made in some of the books that when 
the Acadians were driven from their homes in 1753, a 
number of them took refuge on the Labrador coast, and 
erected a fort at Chateau Bay. For this statement there 
is no authority whatever. The only invasion of the shores 
of Labrador by Acadians took place in the years 1857-1861. 
During these years a number of Acadians came from the 
Magdalen Islands, whither their ancestors had fled a cen- 
tury before. Some of them ; braving the threats of seig- 
neurs, settled at Pointe Saint-Paul, not far from the ancient 
harbour of "Brest," and others squatted near Natishquan, 
ninety miles east of Mingan. In all, they numbered 
about eighty families. Their children still live on the 
Cdte du Nord, scarcely distinguishable from the French 
Canadians about them. 

Something must be said about the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany. • It is probable that until 1870 the Hudson's Bay 
Company was at law the proprietor of a large part of the 
Labrador peninsula. Under their charter they claimed 



32 LABRADOR 

"all rights to trade and commerce of those seas, etc., 
within the entrance of Hudson's Strait, and all lands on 
the coasts and confines thereof." Their claim to Labrador 
was submitted to the law officers of the British crown in 
1752, and pronounced by them to be valid. It was not, 
however, till 1831 that the company began to exploit 
Labrador. In that year, having learned from a missionary 
report that the country about Ungava produced excellent 
furs, and being desirous also of "ameliorating the condi- 
tion of the natives," they founded Fort Chimo on Hudson's 
Strait. A year or so later they established at the other 
end of Labrador Rigolet Post, near the head of Hamilton 
Inlet. It was the desire to establish communications 
between these two posts that led to the wonderful over- 
land journey of John M'Lean, the factor at Fort Chimo, 
in 1838, a journey which has not been repeated until within 
the last few years. M'Lean's Notes of a Twenty-five Years 1 
Service in the Hudson's Bay Territories is worth reading 
as an earlier version of the lure of the Labrador wild. 

In 1870 the great company surrendered all its rights in 
British North America to the Dominion of Canada, in return 
for a substantial quid pro quo. All that part of Labrador, 
therefore, which does not belong to Newfoundland, comes 
under the jurisdiction of the Dominion. 

There remains to be told the story of the Moravian 
missionaries. No more wonderful story of missionary 
effort has ever awaited the pen of the reporter; and yet 
the work of the Moravian Mission in Labrador has been 
little known. It was in 1752 that the United Society of 
Brethren first attempted to found a mission there among 



INTRODUCTION 33 

the Eskimos. It ended in failure. The four mission- 
aries had erected a house, the frame and materials of which 
they had brought with them, when five or six members of 
the crew, among them the mate, who was a Brother, were 
treacherously murdered by the Eskimos. The mission- 
aries were obliged to return with the ship, in order to 
help man her, and they left their house standing on the 
bleak and desolate coast. It was seen next year (1753) 
by Captain Swaine, of Philadelphia, who was exploring the 
coast in the ship Argo. 

The attempt to found a mission was not renewed until 
1764. In that year Jans Haven, a member of the 
Brotherhood who had been working among the Eskimos 
of Greenland, landed at St. John's, Newfoundland. Sir 
Hugh Palliser, the new governor, was anxious to improve 
the relations between the white men and the Eskimos, 
and he did all in his power to further Haven's aims. At 
last, at Quirpont, Haven met an Eskimo. "I ran to 
meet him," he says. Great was the surprise of the Eskimo 
at being addressed in Greenlandic. 

The next year three other missionaries came out, one 
of them an old man whose race was nearly run. They 
selected the spot which they thought best for their mission, 
and then asked from the government a grant of 100,000 
acres in connection with it. This demand fell on the ears 
of the government like a thunderbolt. It was excessive; 
it savoured even of ulterior designs. The missionaries 
explained that the vicious influence of the European 
traders and fishermen on the coast made it necessary that 
the natives should, as far as possible, be preserved from 
contamination. In 1769, after long delays, the grant was 



34 LABRADOR 

made. Two years later the Brethren began to build their 
mission house at Nain. "It was as if," wrote one of them, 
" each with one of his hands wrought in the work and with 
the other held a weapon." Before winter broke on them 
they had the house finished. 

In 1773 the British government sent out Lieutenant 
Curtis, R.N., as a commissioner to report on the progress 
of the mission. Some sentences from his report may be 
transcribed : — 

"They have chosen for their residence a place called 
by the Indians [Eskimos] Nonynoke, but to which they 
have given the name of Unity Bay. . . . Their house is 
called Nain. It is a good situation, and is well contrived. 
They have a few swivels mounted, although they have 
no occasion for them, as the Indians [Eskimos] are awed 
more by their amiable conduct than by arms. There 
is a sawmill, which is worked by a small stream conducted 
thither by their industry from the mountains, and they 
find this engine to be extremely serviceable. . . . They 
have a small sandy garden, and they raise salads in toler- 
able perfection. . . . The natives love and respect them, 
because they have happily adopted and strictly adhere 
to that conduct which is endearing without being familiar. 
None of the Indians [Eskimos], a very few excepted, 
ever presume to come within the palisades without per- 
mission, nor is a bolt necessary to prevent their intrusion. 
. . . The progress which the mission has made in civiliz- 
ing the Indians [Eskimos] is wonderful." 

In 1775 the mission at Okkak was established; and in 
1782 that at Hopedale. Everything, however, did not go 
smoothly at first. About 1787 a mysterious person named 
Makko, a French Canadian (says the historian of the 
mission), who combined the character of merchant and 



INTRODUCTION 35 

Roman Catholic priest, succeeded in enticing a number of 
the Eskimos away from the Brethren. And Cartwright 
says in his journal in 1783: "The Eskimos expressed a 
great dislike to the Moravians, and assured me they would 
not live near, or trade with, them more." It was not until 
1804, says one of the missionaries, that the fruits of the 
mission began to appear; but in that year, "a fire from the 
Lord was kindled among the Eskimos." Since then 
mission stations have been established at Hebron, at Zoar, 
at Ramah, and at Makkovik. These names may be seen 
marked on any good map of northeastern America, "names 
of another clime and an alien race." 

The Eskimos, said Cartwright, "have always been 
accounted the most savage race of people on the whole 
continent of America." "They are," said Governor 
Palliser, "the most savage people in the world." To- 
day it would be hard to find a more quiet, placid, and 
peaceable race. The change is due almost entirely to the 
United Brethren. They have converted a race of primeval 
savages, with whom murder was a passion and theft a 
craze, into mild and simple Christians. The great miracle 
has seldom been wrought on more unpromising materials 
and with more amazing success. 

For their part, the Eskimos are not unmindful of 
their friends and benefactors. "My dear Brethren and 
Sisters," writes Simeon of Nain, "I am quite astonished at 
your love for us, and distressed that I am not able to make 
you any return. I have requested my teachers to trans- 
late my words into your words, that you may understand 
that I feel great gratitude toward you. I am Simeon." 

"I greet the unknown friends in Europe," writes Verona 



36 LABRADOR 

from Hopedale, "as if I knew them, and write these un- 
worthy lines to them. In heaven I shall see them and get 
to know them, because we shall all be with the Lord, even 
those who have no money." 



CHAPTER II 

TRAVELLED ROUTES TO LABRADOR 
By W. T. Grenfell 

The northeast coast of Labrador can be reached at pres- 
ent only via Newfoundland. A passenger steamer runs 
from each side of the island to Labrador. They are stout 
boats, and are in the hands of such old experienced pilot 
captains that in spite of the badly charted coast, the ice- 
bergs, and the absence of most of the aids to navigation in 
the more beaten tracks, no danger beyond what is inci- 
dental to every sea trip need be anticipated. There has 
never yet been a life lost from accident on these mail boats 
visiting the Labrador coast. 

The tourist must choose whether he wishes to go by the 
west or east coast of Newfoundland. The east coast boat 
runs once a fortnight. She calls at many points along the 
east coast of Labrador as far as Nain, in lat. 56°, and also 
at several ports on the east coast of Newfoundland. The 
west coast boat makes weekly trips, starting from Bay of 
Islands. She touches at ports on the island, crosses the 
Strait, and visits the southern shore of Labrador, from 
Bonne Esperance to Battle Harbour, at the entrance to the 
Strait of Belle Isle. Here she connects with the east coast 

37 



38 LABRADOR 

boat, so that visitors can come by the one route and re- 
turn by the other if they choose. St. John's is connected 
with Bay of Islands by direct railway communication. 1 

The Reid-Newfoundland Company issue an illustrated 
" Souvenir" of Newfoundland. This contains an excel- 
lent map of all the routes of their lines, and also takes in 
the whole coast of Newfoundland and the Labrador coast 
as far north as their steamer goes, i.e. to Nain. As far 
as Chateau in the Strait of Belle Isle, the tourist is in 
telegraphic communication with the outside world 
and by the Marconi system as far north as Hamilton 
Inlet. 

St. John's is very easy of access and can be reached 
from either Liverpool or Glasgow by steamer. The pas- 
sage takes about eight days. St. John's can also be 
reached by steamer from Halifax by the Furness line or 
Red Cross line ; from New York direct by the Red Cross 
line; from Boston by Furness-Withy line; and direct 
from Montreal by the Black Diamond Steamship line. If, 
however, a shorter sea passage is desired, passengers can go 
via Sydney, Cape Breton, whence a steamer connects with 
the trans-Newfoundland Railway at Port-aux-Basques, 
accomplishing the short sea journey in six or seven hours. 
The railway to St. John's from Port-aux-Basques passes 
through Bay of Islands, the starting-point of the western 
boat to Labrador. It also traverses the beautiful valleys 
of the Humber and Cordroy rivers. 

As the east coast Labrador steamer makes about a hun- 

1 The passenger agent at St. John's for the Reid-Newfoundland 
Company will gladly give all information with regard to means of 
transit, etc. 



TRAVELLED ROUTES TO LABRADOR 39 

dred calls on the round trip, the traveller can learn much 
without leaving her. But if he wishes really to see Lab- 
rador, he must be willing to give more time to it than the 
mere hurried round trip of the mail steamers can afford 
him. These steamers remain but a very short time at each 
place, and do not visit the long and almost unknown 
fiords which constitute one of the chief attractions of the 
coast. To go where perhaps the foot of man has never 
trod, to wind in and out at leisure among the countless 
turns and twists of these inlets, never knowing what one 
is likely to meet with next, adds a great charm to a holiday 
and a freshness which long since has been lost by most 
summer resorts. The wildest, least known, and by far the 
grandest fiords are all north of Nain; in order to attain a 
true appreciation of scenic Labrador, one ought to begin 
where at present the average visitor is obliged to turn back 
with the mail steamer. 

Thus to enjoy the best that Labrador has to offer, and 
to study the remarkable features which among all the 
coasts near to civilization are peculiar to "the Labrador," 
one must be able to linger at will in the long fiords, push 
up these still unnamed and almost unknown arms of the 
sea, and discover for oneself new coves and inlets as he 
coasts along them. In a few, but only a very few, of the 
northern bays and fiords one may occasionally find a 
solitary salmon fisherman. Generally the visitor may en- 
joy with Robinson Crusoe the joy of being monarch of all 
he surveys. Not a policeman, nor a warning "not to tres- 
pass'' will be encountered. No advertising fiend has yet 
succeeded in defacing these refreshing wilds. 

In Labrador there are no hotels in the ordinary meaning 



40 LABBADOB 

of the word. Yet there is not a single place touched by the 
mail steamer where the visitor will not find a shelter of some 
sort. The ways of the country are those of the wilds, and 
every house is glad to offer what accommodation it can to 
those who come along. The Moravian Brethren, the hos- 
pitals of the International Grenfell Association, the 
larger planters, as well as the settlers, are always glad 
to help a visitor along. Naturally, however, if one wishes 
to go exploring, hunting, fishing, or doing any kind of 
w r ork which involves going far from the mail steamers, it 
is best to be independent, and to be so one should carry 
a tent and light camper's outfit. 

Very few supplies can be obtained locally. It is best to 
rely on obtaining nothing beyond flour, sugar, hard 
bread, salt meats, and one or two of the commoner foods, 
such as dry peas, etc.; these can be obtained at almost 
every place where the mail boat stops. Nor must one 
count on getting canoes or light boats suitable for rivers 
on the coast. Only a very few such craft exist. It is far 
better to take one's own boat and sell it at the end of the 
trip, for craft of this sort would command a ready market. 

Guides can be obtained for most of the outer bays if they 
are arranged for beforehand. Since the summer-time is 
the only season in which most Labrador men can earn 
money, arrangements should be made for guides and crews 
during the preceding winter or spring. The best way to be 
sure of a reliable guide is to write to the agent of the Hudson's 
Bay Company, the Moravian Brethren in the north, or the 
author of this chapter. All are glad enough to assist any 
one planning a visit to the coast or interior. 

The best way of all, though naturally the most expen- 



TRAVELLED ROUTES TO LABRADOR 41 

sive, is to hire a schooner or a small steamer, and thus 
be entirely one's own master. Few yachts have ever 
visited Labrador. The descriptions given of the welcome 
afforded by its coast to small vessels, even in such should-be 
authorities as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, are so poetical 
in their freedom with the actual facts, that they are not 
calculated to entice any one who is bent on pleasure. As 
a matter of fact, if the charting were better, there could 
scarcely be a safer coast for the amateur skipper, for one 
can get a harbour in every stretch of ten miles along the 
whole length of the Atlantic coast. It is not necessary to 
spend a single night at sea the whole way from the Belle 
Isle Strait to Cape Chidley. Flitting from harbour to 
harbour, one can easily cover the entire coast. 1 

The days are long in summer in these latitudes, and at 
night the clear atmosphere, the splendid northern lights, 
and the absence of strong tidal currents (except in the 
extreme north), make navigation still more easy. I have 
cruised the coast both in sailing boat and steamer, year 
after year, and have never been near losing a life yet. 
Three parties of friends, who have adopted this method of 
visiting Labrador in a hired schooner (one party having 
come two summers in succession), all give the same testi- 
mony. 2 The fishermen who visit this coast year after year 
can give similar evidence ; thousands of men, women, and 
children have for many years been cruising the outside coast 

1 With one man in an open dingey I have, with comparative com- 
fort, traversed the coast from Battle Harbour to Rigolet, a distance 
of two hundred miles. 

2 The gentlemen referred to are Americans from Boston, Mass., 
Concord, N.H., and Providence, R.I., respectively. 



42 LABRADOR 

in summer as far as lat. 56° north and some as far as Hud- 
son Strait. These people come down from both sides of 
Newfoundland in sailing craft of every conceivable kind, 
many sailing in vessels under twenty tons, and some in open 
skiffs. Yet it is very rare to hear of any having been lost 
from stress of weather. The dangers of the ice have often 
been ridiculously exaggerated. The one or two cases where 
collisions with ice have occurred have been due to the 
fisherman's hastening along on dark nights in order to 
reach a fishing station sooner than another vessel. In 
fact, these accidents are due to the contempt bred of famil- 
iarity, and to the consequent boldness which no pleasure 
party would ever dream of displaying. 

The want of charting can be entirely made up for by the 
knowledge of these fishermen, who can readily be shipped 
as part of the crew, acting as pilots at the same time. Nor 
is this knowledge so marvellous after all, when one con- 
siders the number of times that they have navigated these 
same waters, and that they have sounded almost every 
part of it again and again with their hand-lines as they 
fish year after year along the coast. Moreover, the cliffs 
are generally so steep-to that the bowsprit would strike 
before the keel. Poor anchors and chains are the causes 
of almost all our losses. Only when it comes to the inside 
calm waters up the fiords, where, as a rule, the Newfound- 
landers do not go after fish, does their local knowledge come 
to an end, and the pleasure of exploring for oneself begins. 
But as the water is then necessarily sheltered from any 
possible swell from the Atlantic, and as an anchor can at 
a pinch be dropped anywhere, the danger to life becomes 
almost absolutely nil. In the fiords it is often impossible 



TRAVELLED ROUTES TO LABRADOR 43 

to strike bottom ; if you should wish to do that, your bow- 
sprit will keep you off the land. Even supposing that you 
were to strike and lose the schooner, you have only to 
launch the jolly-boat and row ashore. 

A forty-ton schooner with a crew of four hands could be 
obtained for $100 per week, or less — a sum which would 
include food for the crew, the insurance, and all charges. 
As such a vessel will easily accommodate a party of four or 
five, the expenses, considering the nature of the holiday, 
cannot be considered heavy. The lessor of the schooner 
would have to be guaranteed probably a ten weeks' mini- 
mum hire. It is possible to hire a schooner for a lump 
sum to include everything. 1 

If time is a great object, the best way would be to send 
one's boat on to Labrador and meet her there in the mail 
steamer. This would obviate the only open sea that is 
more than one could be sure of compassing in a day's run; 
namely, the journey from St. John's to Battle Harbour. 
After that it is perfectly easy to harbour every night. 
As one travels farther north, the number of off-lying islands 
increases considerably, and for a hundred miles at a time 
one can pursue his journey along the coast with an " in- 
side" passage. From Cape Harrigan in lat. 55° north to 
Cape Mugford in lat. 58° north, the voyage can be made 
almost without seeing the open sea. The last thirty miles 
to Cape Chidley Island is again all inside, and the vessel 
can then be sailed on into Ungava Bay through a strait on 
the south side of the island. It may be noted that the 
tides, such as they are, set almost uniformly to the south- 

1 Mr. W. H. Peters, St. John's, has arranged such a trip and is 
prepared to assist any one wishing to make a similar expedition. 



44 LABRADOR 

ward, so that however hard it may be to beat against head 
winds to the northward, it is always easy to get back again. 
Fire-wood for camping purposes can be obtained every- 
where south of Cape Mugf ord ; with a little care and fore- 
sight the fuel question need offer no difficulty. 

After many years' cruising the coast as master of my 
own vessel, after having visited the coasts of Norway and 
Iceland, as well as having coasted all round the British 
Isles, I consider that none of these European shores offers 
a more fascinating and safer field for pleasure cruising than 
the coast of Labrador. Everywhere the coast is bold-to, 
and if disaster overtakes a pleasure vessel in the summer 
months, it is due to negligence or to bad tackle for holding 
or running gear. 

If the visitor to Labrador desires scenery of a wild and 
rocky nature, he should certainly aim for the northern half 
of the northeast coast. At Nain the cliffs are already 
beginning to rise to heights which cannot fail to delight 
the eye and to stimulate the imagination. From that 
point on, the sheer precipices increase in number and im- 
pressiveness until, at Port Manvers, they rise two thousand 
feet out of the sea ; at Cape Mugf ord, three thousand feet ; 
at the Moravian Mission station, Ramah, thirty-five hun- 
dred feet; while the mountains rising direct from sea- 
level in the Nachvak region are over four thousand feet in 
height. One of the finest of the great mountain-blocks is 
that at Cape White Handkerchief — so named from a 
large mass of white rock in the face of this stupendous 
promontory. At the head of Seven Islands Bay are the 
highest mountains in Labrador, known as the "Four 
Peaks." So far as known, no white man has ever climbed 



TRAVELLED ROUTES TO LABRADOR 45 

any one of these hornlike, rocky piles: their heights have 
been variously estimated at from six to ten thousand feet. 
The probable heights seem to be from six thousand to 
seven thousand feet. 

Many of the beautiful inlets in the southern half of this 
coast maybe explored with small, open boats or even with 
canoes. Some of the inlets can be easily reached by leav- 
ing the mail steamer at Fanny's Harbour, Cape Harrigan, 
or Davis Inlet (the Hudson's Bay Company's name for 
Ukasiksalik) . First, there is Jack Lane's Bay, with a 
salmon river at its head ; then, a few miles farther north, 
Jem Lane's Bay, beyond which there begin hundreds of 
miles of winding, interlacing fiords and channels (" tickles"). 
Such inside passages thread among a long and wide island- 
breastwork along the coast ; many months could be spent 
in exploring these waters. The wooded sides of the narrow, 
steep-sided "tickles" not only give their own touch of 
beauty to the landscapes, but afford cover to animals of 
various sorts. At Hopedale one has access to several long 
bays reaching up into the interior ; at the head of the near- 
est bay is a large and beautiful waterfall. Farther south 
the bays bearing the following names will well repay visits : 
Kaipokak, Makkovik, Kanairiktok, Stag Bay, Hamilton 
Inlet, Sandwich Bay, Hawke's Bay, Alexis River Bay, and 
Lewis Bay. To reach them the visitor should leave the 
steamer at the respective points : West Turnavik, Makko- 
vik Island, Hopedale, Cape Harrison, Rigolet, Cartwright, 
Boulter's Rock, Square Island, and Battle Harbour. 

But the universal attraction of the coast — the ever 
changing glory of the atmosphere — cannot be localized or 
described. Colour is everywhere, with a gamut that few 



46 LABRADOR 

parts of the world can equal. From the hilltops the land 
is a giant opal, changing, in a million moods, from the 
tenderest gray or blue, through vivid emerald or most 
royal purples, to the unsurpassed gold and reds of the long 
twilights and dawns. In the summer season north of 
Hamilton Inlet the sky is seldom clouded over completely, 
and cumulus, stratus, or ocean mist simply enhance the in- 
imitable play of nature's colouring. Thunder-storms are 
very rare; when one of these storms, coming from the 
west, does pass out to sea, it may be an event in one's life. 
I shall never forget one dark night when the huge cliffs of 
Mugford Tickle through which we steamed, and a group of 
great icebergs stranded at their feet, leapt out of the black- 
ness as stroke after stroke of lightning blazed from the 
clouds. It seemed that one could scarcely imagine a sight 
more thoroughly awe-inspiring. Even the short nights 
of the summer and early autumn are blest with light and 
exquisite colour, for the auroral displays are, on this coast, 
among the most frequent and extensive of all those re- 
corded throughout the world. Very often, beneath this 
strange sky, the sea is intensely phosphorescent ; the traveller 
by night may find endless entertainment, watching from 
the bow of his moving vessel the weird lights set flashing 
by schools of frightened fish. 

If the visitor seeks large rivers for exploration by canoe, 
he can find a good number, and all are well stocked with 
salmon and trout. Trout are known always to be taken 
with the fly, but beyond the latitude of 53° 50' north, little 
fly-fishing has been attempted, and contrary reports are 
given as to the measure of success in getting salmon to 
rise. The noblest of the rivers is, of course, the Hamilton, 



TRAVELLED ROUTES TO LABRADOR 47 

at the head of Melville Lake (Hamilton Inlet) ; this river/ 
will be specially described in Dr. Low's chapter on " Ham- 
ilton River and Grand Falls." 

For hunting, the places least disturbed by man are 
naturally apt to be the best. In the autumn almost all 
the bays abound in geese and ducks. One may be rather 
sure of geese at the entrance to Hamilton Inlet, at the head 
of Lane's Bay, at the entrance of Table Bay, in Goose Bay 
near Cartwright, and in Byron's Bay. Other likely places 
are Partridge and Rocky bays, and also at all the flats near 
the mouths of the big rivers. The autumn deer-hunting 
is, so far as known to me, most likely to be successful in 
Davis Inlet, on the hills about Nain, inside Cape Mugford, 
at the head of Makkovik Bay and on the hills above Stag 
Bay and False Bay. After Christmas deer are to be found 
in abundance within reach of the settlers on the southern 
part of the coast. Black bears are most likely to be en- 
countered where the settlers are fewest in number and where 
the caplin come to the land-wash near the woods. Many 
bears are killed every year in Hawke's Bay. They are also 
found in the fiords between Davis Inlet and Nain. White 
bears are found in small numbers on the northern parts of 
the coast, where they remain all summer to feed on the 
eggs and young of the countless ducks and geese. 

Those who wish to study the Eskimo should go to Nain, 
and then farther north. To see them in anything like 
their primitive condition one should go as far as Ramah, 
and, if possible, to Nachvak and Ungava. In the northern 
fiords are many relics of the stone-age out of which these 
people are just passing; many articles of ancient make may 
be found by travelling in the gravel-beaches. To see the 



48 LABRADOR 

Nascaupee or Montagnais Indians one should seek for them 
at Northwest River or at Davis Inlet whither they come 
to trade their furs. 

Studies in geology, botany, and mineralogy can, of course, 
be pursued anywhere. The formations north of Nain 
seem to offer most prospect of commercial ores. An iron- 
deposit has been worked near Ramah ; gold has been found 
near Cartwright ; mica, at Paradise and at Boulter's Rocks ; 
antimony, near Eagle River; and copper, near Cape Mug- 
ford. No lasting mining operations have been begun. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 
By W. T. Grenfell 

It is probable that the readers of this book are, as a rule, 
most interested in the drama of human life as, year after year, 
it is being played out in this strange land of Labrador. 
For this very reason one may well pause beforehand to 
review the physical features of the peninsula; in an in- 
timate way and often in spectacular fashion the Labra- 
dorman's daily life is controlled by natural conditions. 
The simplicity and wholesomeness of that life are chiefly 
due to the fact that the men of the country are always 
close to nature. These essential traits of fine character 
are growing every day in the youth of Labrador much 
as the myriad of exquisite flowers deck its hills during the 
glory of summer; both man and plant are rooted in the 
soil or grip the native rocks, their home by the sea. This 
chapter is intended to furnish a brief outline of the physi- 
ography. Since the northeast coast is from many aspects 
the most interesting part, a following chapter will supply 
additional details on that region; in that chapter a brief 
summary of the geological development of the whole 
peninsula is also included. The scenic importance of the 
Grand Falls of Hamilton River demands a chapter which 
incidentally describes many typical features of the interior. 
e 49 



50 LABBADOB 

Dr. A. P. Low, now Deputy Minister of Mines in Canada, 
is the chief authority on the geography of the interior 
He alone has published much on that greater part of the 
peninsula. His truly wonderful trips through the length 
and breadth of Labrador were signalized as much by the 
success attained as by the absence of mishaps on his long 
and hazardous journeys. To see the interior one must 
understand travelling. Mr. Low's trips show that much 
good work can be done with little fuss, and that no ob- 
stacles to exploration exist which foresight will not over- 
come. Using his simple but effective and essential rules 
of outfitting and living on the way, other men will repeat 
his traverses and add many new ones, until finally Labra- 
dor is really and thoroughly known. Meantime, I am 
glad to be able to supply from Mr. Low's own pen a short 
account of his findings in the interior. He writes : — 

"The peninsula of Labrador has an area of more than 
five hundred thousand square miles. It is an ancient 
plateau formed of crystalline rocks which were folded up 
and elevated above the sea in a very early period in geo- 
logical history. The plateau rises abruptly from the sea 
along the Atlantic and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while 
the northern and western slopes are much more gentle. 
The main watershed of southern Labrador is about two 
hundred miles north of the St. Lawrence, where the general 
level is about two thousand feet above the sea. As con- 
trolled by the southern position of the watershed and by 
the range of mountains along the Atlantic coast, the greater 
part of the drainage is to the north and west, into Hudson 
Bay and Hudson Strait, and the largest rivers flow in those 
directions. 

"The surface of the interior is comparatively level, 
being broken by low, rounded ridges of crystalline rocks, 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 51 

which seldom rise three hundred feet above the general 
level, and are usually much lower. These ridges lie roughly 
parallel; some of them being many miles in length, but 
as a rule, they die out in less than ten miles, so that the low 
land between forms a network of connected, shallow valleys. 
The general surface is further modified by low ridges of 
glacial drift, whose direction corresponds with the general 
slope of the country. These ridges have resulted from the 
transportation and movement of the loose surface material 
by the glacier, which once covered almost the entire surface 
of the peninsula. They have largely obliterated the ancient 
drainage systems of the central area, where the present 
watercourses are all of recent origin. The valleys separat- 
ing the ridges are occupied by innumerable irregularly 
shaped lakes, which vary in size from ponds to lakes hun- 
dreds of square miles in extent. The lakes of each valley 
are connected by a stream, usually with a rapid current 
and without definite banks, following the lowest levels of 
the surface between lake and lake. As the streams be- 
come larger they are often split into numerous channels by 
large islands ; many of the lakes discharge by two or more 
outlets flowing into the next lake below. There results 
a bewildering network of waterways hard to follow or map. 
These streams are seldom broken by falls ; and as an ex- 
ample of the uniformity of the grade, it may be mentioned 
that the Hamilton River above the Grand Falls can be 
ascended to the heads of both its main branches without 
a portage. The rivers as they approach the coast fall into 
ancient valleys which have been sculptured deep into the 
hard rocks forming the general surface of the plateau. 
The Hamilton Valley is the finest example ; cut a thousand 
feet into the plateau, it extends three hundred miles inland, 
and greatly exceeds the Saguenay Valley in length and 
grandeur. 

"The peninsula, extending northward through ten 
degrees of latitude, differs greatly in climate, and passes 



52 LABRADOR 

from cold temperate in its southern parts to sub-Arctic 
on the shores of Hudson Strait. The climate of the in- 
terior is Arctic in winter, but during the short summer is 
much warmer than the coast, with hot days, cool nights, 
and occasional frosts, so that heavy blankets are always 
comfortable. The annual rainfall is not heavy, and during 
the summer heavy rains are rare ; light showers fall almost 
daily, but are not very inconvenient to the traveller. The 
northern limit of trees extends to the southern shores of 
Ungava Bay. About the upper waters of Hamilton River, 
the valleys are thickly wooded with small spruce, fir, aspen, 
and poplar, while the hills are partly bare. There is a 
marked absence of underbrush, the ground being carpeted 
with white lichens on the higher parts and with mosses in 
the damp lowlands. Blueberries and other small fruits 
are abundant in the burnt areas and along the banks of 
streams. 

" Owing to the high coastal range along the Atlantic, 
the only large rivers flowing eastward empty into the head 
of Hamilton Inlet, which itself is cut through the range 
The Hamilton River is by far the largest of these; next 
in size is Northwest River, the outlet of Lake Michikamou, 
a very large body of water some three hundred miles inland 
to the northwest. The Kenamow is the third, and flows 
from the highlands to the southwest. 

"Some knowledge of the interior of Labrador was pos- 
sessed by the French in 1700, as shown by the map pub- 
lished at Paris, by Delisle, in 1703. This information was 
probably obtained from Jesuit missionaries and fur traders. 
By 1733, seven fur-trading posts had been established along 
the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in the 
southern interior. 

"The fight for the fur trade, between the Northwest 
Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, lasting from 
shortly after the conquest of Canada until 1820, led to the 
establishment of many small posts and outposts far in the 






THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 53 

interior of Labrador. The amalgamation of these rival 
companies led to the abandonment of many of these small 
posts, of which all trace is now lost. 

"In 1824, the Hudson's Bay Company sent Dr. Mendrys 
from Moose Factory on Hudson Bay, across the peninsula 
in canoes, to establish Fort Chimo on Ungava Bay. This 
trip was the basis of Ballantyne's popular story, Ungava. 

"At the same time James Clouston was mapping the 
country between the Nottaway and East Main rivers, 
which flow into Hudson Bay. The next record of explora- 
tion is contained in Twenty-five Years in the Hudson's Bay 
Territory by John McLean. In the period 1838-1840 he 
made annual trips from Fort Chimo to Hamilton Inlet, 
and on one trip discovered the Grand Falls of Hamilton 
River. In 1857 the Hudson's Bay Company had nine 
posts and outposts established in the country north of 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Owing to changes in the con- 
ditions of the Indians, these posts have been gradually 
abandoned, and but two, Nichicun and Mistassini, remain 
at the present time. These are situated on the head 
waters of the Big and Rupert rivers, which flow into Hud- 
son Bay, and are not within the province of this book. 
The old posts of Nascaupee, Michikamou, and Winokapau 
on the Hamilton River were abandoned in 1873, and the 
Indians belonging to them now trade at posts on the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence. 

"With the closing of the trading posts all knowledge of 
the interior was lost, and it can only be recovered by new 
explorations. In 1887, R. F. Holmes attempted to reach 
the Grand Falls of the Hamilton, but being without proper 
canoes and crew, only reached Lake Winokapau, a little 
over halfway up the river. Two separate expeditions 
from the United States ascended to the Grand Falls within 
a few days of each other in 1891, and accounts of their trips 
were published in the geographical journals and in the 
Century Magazine, 



54 LABRADOR 

" Since 1885 the writer has made a number of trips 
through the interior and along the northern and western 
coasts, reports of which are published by the Canadian 
Geological Survey. 

"This in a few words is the available knowledge con- 
cerning the history of the vast interior of Labrador; our 
information has been wholly derived from a few portage 
routes travelled by the voyageurs of the Hudson's Bay 
Company to and from the coast and from a few surveyed 
tracks along the principal watercourses by government 
explorers and others." 

One quarter of the whole surface of Labrador is estimated 
to be covered with fresh water. Vast lakes are so joined 
by an intersecting network of rivers that it is possible to 
canoe over most of the country with astonishingly few 
portages of length. For example, a voyager can enter 
the Manikuagan River at the Gulf of St. Lawrence in lat. 
49° 15' north, travel about three hundred miles to Summit 
Lake in lat. 53° north, cross the lake and on the opposite 
side enter the Koksoak River, and, proceeding another 
four hundred miles, come out in Ungava Bay in lat. 58° 5' 
north. These distances, it may be noted, are in the air- 
line; following the turns of the rivers the distances are 
nearly twice as great as those given. Or, again, one can 
enter Hamilton Inlet, proceed about one hundred and fifty 
miles to the mouth of Hamilton River in long. 60° west, 
follow it to its source some six hundred miles to the west- 
ward, cross by a short portage to the head of Big River, 
and follow that stream about seven hundred miles farther 
westward, to its mouth in Hudson Bay in long. 79° west. 
Probably in no country of equal area can exploration by 
canoe be carried on with so few portages. 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 55 

The maps showing Mr. Low's traverses are published by 
the Geological Survey Department at Ottawa, Canada; 
they are the only reliable maps of any part of the interior. 

The distances along the coast-lines of the peninsula 
are truly " magnificent." The air-line stretch from Battle 
Harbour to Cape Chidley on the northeast coast is seven 
hundred miles; following the sinuosities the shore-line is 
doubtless three to four times as long. From Cape Chidley 
to Cape Wolstenholme (the north coast) is about five hun- 
dred miles as the crow would fly, if he could live up there. 
From Cape Wolstenholme to the bottom of James Bay is 
another eight hundred miles, while the south coast is ap- 
proximately seven hundred miles, also in a straight line. 
Thousands of miles of additional shore-line are represented 
in the numerous inlets and in the literally thousands of 
islands along the southern and northeastern coasts. The 
relative accessibility of the coasts, coupled with the fact 
that fisheries will long be the principal industry of the 
country, makes it expedient to use more space in the de- 
scription of these parts of the peninsula. Besides the 
physiography described in the special chapter on the 
northeast coast, I shall here add some notes derived from 
my own exploration of the northern fiords. 

If one could and should accurately picture the fiords, it 
would mean that half the interest of the visitors in these 
northern waters would be lost. The romance of these 
wonderful cleavages in the mountains largely consists 
in the feeling one has that, when he turns a corner, no 
man has told him what will next meet the eye. The study 
of the fiords has only just begun ; all that I can do is to give 
some indication as to general location, lengths, and con- 



56 



LABRADOR 



Bur well u ^Moravian Bretherni 




SKETCH PLAN AND 
SOUNDINGS OF TICKLE 

BETWEEN" 

CAPE CHIDLEY ISLAND 

AND LABRADOR 

SCALE OF GEOGRAPHICAL MILES 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 57 

tours of a few of them. Of the thirty or more larger fiords 
a few will be noted, beginning at the most northerly one 
on the Atlantic coast. Some stress will be laid on the 
landmarks which may be of service to future explorers 
in the far north. 

South of Cape Chidley Island is the channel connecting 
Ungava Bay with the Atlantic. Separated from that 




Fig. 1. Cape Chidley 

1. 1950 ft. — Mt. Sir Donald on south side of Grenfell Tickle; 2. The cape; 3. Posi- 
tion of Killinik; 4. East coast of Labrador; 5. Gray Straits. 

channel for some ten miles only by a narrow, rocky ridge, 
is a long inlet which I explored in the small steamer Sir 
Donald during the year 1897. We entered this inlet while 
searching for the channel above mentioned. We steamed 
up about ten miles, the water being, as usual, deep on both 
sides. Finding at that distance a good circular harbour 
on the north side, we dropped anchor in good mud at six 
fathoms. We thence scaled the highest hill on the north 
side, finding the summit too precipitous to ascend until we 
reached its southwest shoulder. The summit was found 
to be only about nineteen hundred and fifty feet above sea, 
but it commanded a glorious view. We could see Ungava 
Bay in the west, the Button Islands in the north ; to the 
east, the Atlantic beset with numerous islands; to the 
south, a great array of the rugged peaks stretching away 



58 



LABRADOR 



indefinitely into the mainland. We built a cairn on this 
peak and named it " Mount Sir Donald." Running an- 
other ten miles, toward the north-northwest, we reached 
a point in the inlet, where it is separated from a similar 
inlet from Ungava Bay only by a low neck of land. The 
main bay continues to the south westward — how far, I am 




Fig. 2. The Curve in Grenfell, Tickle 
1. Chidley Island; 2. Mt. Sir Donald; 3. Cairn. 

unable to say. On a second visit to this fiord we found 
three families of Eskimo camped on its shore; there are 
remains of ancient Eskimo encampments on the flats. 
This is an excellent ground on which to search for stone 
relics. 

Threading the islands for a distance of ten miles from the 
mouth of this fiord, another inlet opens. It is marked on 
the Admiralty chart under the name "Ekortiarsuk." 
I have never entered it, nor have I record of its exploration 
by a single white man; the inlet is reported, however, 
to wind away among the mountains for thirty miles. 

Fifteen miles to the south-southwest is Mount Bache 




w 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 



59 



and the northern end of the fiord-like Eclipse Channel, 
which lies between the mainland and the large island 
" Aulatzevik." Halfway through, this channel is blocked by 
ledges of rock, so that only small boats can pass. The 
Eskimo, in order to avoid the journey in the open ocean 
outside Aulatzevik, regularly use the channel for their 
skin boats. The mountains on each side of the channel 




Fig. 3. Region of Eclipse Coast 

1. Cape Naksarektok; 2. Cape Nullataktok; 3. Islands off Komaktorvik; 4. Cape 
north of Seven Islands; 5. South end of Strand; 6. South side Ryan's Bay; 
7. Cape Territok; 8. North cape of Falss Bay; 9. Mt. Bache. 

vary from two to three thousand feet in height. Aulatze- 
vik is divided by a through-going valley, occupied in part 
by a long bay and, for the rest, by a string of small lakes. 
The bay offers excellent anchorage. The American eclipse 
expedition of 1860 has published a chart of the island and 
" tickle" (channel), but it does not show this harbour 
on the southern end of the island. Just west of the entrance 
to the harbour there is a remarkable natural landmark, 
a sketch of which is given in Figure 4. The landmark 
may be useful to any one making the land here, for the 
peak is plainly visible from the sea ; I have called the peak 
"Castle Mountain/' since it greatly resembles an old ba- 



60 



LABRADOR 



ronial castle perched high on a semi-isolated spur of the 
general range facing the sea. Care must be taken in ap- 
proaching the northern entrance, for there are, besides 
several very small islands, some " nasty" shoals lying be- 
tween east and northeast of Mount Bache. Beyond these 
shoals there are some larger islands, one of which has an 




Fig. 4. View from Sea off Southern Side of Big Bay 

1. Eclipse — North entrance; 2. Castle Mountain; 3. A green grassy point; 
4. By waterfall. 



excellent harbour on the western side. These we have 
called the Mettek Islands, i.e. Eider-duck Islands. In 
1903 Mr. George Ford of Nachvak, with two Eskimo, 
visited the islands during the breeding season. The birds 
were so thick on the ground that Mr. Ford had difficulty in 
finding enough space free of nests or eggs on which to place 
his sleeping-bag. The men took away twenty-five hundred 
eggs, but when they left the eggs were as abundant as 
ever; the eider-duck is a most industrious bird. 

About five miles to the south of the southern entrance, 
beyond the mouth of the bay called "Komiadluarsuk," 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 



61 



a remarkable headland rises from the water. This is a 
ridge some two miles long and persistently about three 
hundred feet high. The sky-line is serrate, and the fisher- 
men call the ridge "Razorback." The rocks of the lower 
cliffs (specially steep at the east end) are red ; those higher 




Fig. 5. Western Entrance to Grenfell Tickle 

Chidley Island; 2. Mt. Sir Donald; 3. Western entrance to Grenfell Tickle; 
4. Tunusaksak Bay. 



up grow darker until, at the top, the ridge is almost black. 
Its various peculiarities make the ridge a fine landmark. 
"Razorback" lies just north of the entrance to the next 
fiord, that called Ryan's Bay. This one has not been ex- 
plored by schooners. There is good anchorage on the north 
side, just beyond a great rampart of dark rock which runs 
southerly, at right angles to the ridge just described. On 
this side of the fiord there is a notable beach of sand, one 
of the very few sand beaches on the coast. It is a com- 
pound beach, being made up of successive terraces of sand, 
each terrace marking an old level of the sea; the whole 
forms the clearest evidence of the recent emergence of the 
coast border from beneath the sea. There are numerous 



62 



LABRADOR 



remains of old Eskimo " earth" houses, sunk into these 
raised beaches. The roofs have long since fallen in, but 
the walls, built of boulders and banked with sand, were 
still standing. The bay is said to run far inland, and re- 
ceives at its head a good-sized river plenteously supplied 
with trout, a former food supply for the Eskimo. 

The mountains both to north and to south of Ryan's 




Fig. 6. Mountains to West-southwest looking over Ryan's Bay 

Bay are alpine in character. The peaks are bare and sheer ; 
one, rising to the southwest, reminded me strongly of the 
Matterhom, though, of course, on a smaller scale (Figure 
6). Fifteen miles to the southward, or halfway between 
Ryan's Bay and Cape White Handkerchief, another large, 
double fiord opens. Owing to the large islands facing this 
inlet, the fishermen have named it Seven Islands Bay. 
The two divisions of the bay are called by the Eskimo 
"Komaktorvik" and "Kangalaksiorvik." The entrance 
may be safely made by keeping the north side aboard; 
there is abundant good anchorage almost anywhere inside. 
The large, high island bearing to port is called "Avagalik," 
or Whale Island. The entrance to the south of the islands 
is partly blocked by shoals occurring near the islands. 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 63 

These shoals are dangerous, especially as they are covered 
with black kelp; the average depth upon them is about 
two fathoms. To enter safely, one should keep the shore 
side aboard. Running out directly seawards for nearly 
twenty miles is a barrier reef of low black rocks surmounted 
by tiny islands ; the whole simulating a coral reef in form, 
though, of course, not in origin. The fishermen call the 
whole the Hog's Back, from the likeness of the islets and 
rocky points to a hog's bristles. There is an interesting 
problem as to just how all these innumerable rocks were cut 
off so near the water-line. To approach the entrance of 
the double fiord from the south, the skipper should keep 
all the islands, including the Hog's Back, to the north; 
standing in for the land about five miles north of Cape 
White Handkerchief; with the cliffs aboard, pass in south 
of a ridged island about three hundred feet high and a mile 
long. This island is of a red colour, and is called by the 
Eskimo "Nenoraktualuk," or "Big White Bearskin"; it is 
the only really large island on the outside. Four miles west 
of the end of the island is the spring sealing station of many 
Eskimo, and is called "Inuksulik," or Beacon Island. 

How far the double fiord extends into the land is not 
known, though it is certainly many miles. The Eskimo 
catch trout in Komaktorvik, and used to carry their catch 
to Nachvak, the Hudson's Bay station until 1906. 

Since this region north of Nachvak Inlet is the least 
known part of the Atlantic coast, I have laid special em- 
phasis upon it, with the express purpose of pointing to the 
need of its further exploration. The more southerly fiords 
have been more visited by white men. One of the very 
finest of all is that at Nachvak; it is illustrated in Dr. 



64 LABRADOR 

Daly's chapter on the geology and scenery of the northeast 
coast — a chapter which also contains a brief description 




Fig. 7. Region of Iron Strand 

1. Point at entrance to Seven Island Bay; 2. The Iron Strand (Sagliarvtsek), shoal 
water close in (black aand and rocks). 

of the very different, though likewise imposing, fiords and 
channels about Cape Mugford. In order to avoid a tedious 
verbal account, while giving some idea of the curiously 
varied scenery of the coast as I have seen it, a considerable 




Fig. 8. Region of Iron Strand 
1. Promontory off north end Iron Strand; 2. Long fresh water pond. 

number of sketches have been introduced (Figures 7 to 12). 
The configuration of the sea bottom off the coast is, 
of course, of the utmost importance to the fisheries. Im- 
perfect as they are, the Admiralty charts yet give us our 
best information on this subject; to them the reader is 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 



65 



referred, as a useful written description of the many irreg- 
ularities of the inshore bottom is quite impossible. In 




Fig. 9. Cape Nullataktok 
Cape White Handkerchief just around corner. 

general, it may, however, be said that the whole coast is 
fringed with a shelf covered with relatively shallow water, 
the depth averaging well under one hundred fathoms. 




Fig. 10. Region of Ramah 

1. Ramah Bay; 2. The Look-out; 3. Mountain above Mission Strait, 3500 ft.; 
4. Reddick's Bight. 

The beltlike archipelago of islands along the northeast 
coast simply represents the emerged portions of the shelf. 
Beyond the islands the depth may increase to more than 
one hundred fathoms, but, farther out to sea, the bottom 



m 



LABRADOR 



often rises again, forming shoals which many claim to be 
the winter home of the cod. The famous Grand Banks 




Fig. 11. View of Saeglek Bay 

1. Bluebell; 2. East Uivuk; 3. St. John's Harbour; 4. Southwest Point; 
5. Saeglek Bay; 6. Point bearing N. 290° W. 

off Newfoundland represent a great enlargement of the 




Fig. 12. View looking west up Saeglek Bay 

1. St. John's Harbour; 2. Southern division of bay; 3. North division of bay; 
4. Island bore N. 325° W. 

shelf. The summer fisheries are carried on along the 
" inner banks" which, between Cape Harrison and Cape 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 



:67 



Kammarsut 



Nachvak 




Good anchorage in 
7 fm.. c.lnxe in. 
Opposite two white 



Seroalub 



ramah: region 

Long. 63°15' W. Lat. 58 53'N. 

SCALE OF GEOGRAPHICAL MILES 

012345078 



68 LABRADOR 

Mugford, Hind has estimated to cover fifty-two hundred 
square miles. Beyond the outer banks the bottom drops 
off into water hundreds of fathoms deep — at the real edge 
of the continental plateau. 

As a rule, the tides are practically unimportant in the 
navigation of the Atlantic coast of the peninsula. They 
are to be reckoned with in the narrow parts of Belle Isle 
Strait and in the region about Cape Chidley. The only 
overfalls likely to affect a small boat are to be expected 
off Forteau, off Point Amour, in the narrow tickles near 
Cape Chidley, and in Belle Isle Strait. In the strait the 
current runs about three knots an hour both to the east 
and to the west. On the northeast coast the current 
generally runs slowly to the southward. Strong winds 
will affect these velocities about a knot an hour either 
way. 1 

The tides of the far north are, on the other hand, quite 
remarkable. On one occasion I attempted to force the 
nine-knot steamer Strathcona against a full ebb tide in the 
tickle south of Cape Chidley Island. At the narrowest 
place, where the defile is only a hundred yards in width, 
the water was a boiling torrent, filled with whirlpools. 
The steamer, though at full speed ahead, was carried astern. 
We were forced to run back and await the turn of the tide. 
We reckoned the current at fully ten knots an hour. 

The range of tide on the Atlantic coast varies from five 
to eight feet; at Cape Chidley it is thirty-five feet, while 

1 Fuller information may be obtained in the monograph on the tides 
of this coast by Dr. W. Bell Dawson, Engineer in charge of tidal 
surveys for Canada, Department of Marine and Fisheries, Ottawa, 
Canada. 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 69 

the range in Ungava Bay is said to be as much as fifty feet. 
In any case the range in this bay is one of the greatest 
recorded in the world. 

Since the magnetic pole lies to the north-northwest of 
Hudson Bay, the magnetic variation is very high on the 
Labrador coast. At Battle Harbour it is 40° west ; thence 
it increases until it is more than 53° to the west at Cape 
Chidley. The visitor cannot fail to be struck by the fact 
that, during auroral displays, the middle of the illuminated 
arc, which flames over the magnetic pole, lies to the north- 
west, far from the north star. 

It should be emphasized that the charts of the region 
north of Hamilton Inlet are of little or no practical value 
to the navigator. They are only of value in giving general 
directions and in furnishing a crude pictorial idea of the 
coast. 

The climate of Labrador is not excelled anywhere in 
the world for its bracing and invigorating effect. Testi- 
mony gathered from hundreds of workmen, prospectors, 
visitors, sailors, fishermen, officials, lumbermen, and 
scientific men have shown that, without exception, their 
general health has improved, and they have been able to 
sleep quite a material proportion of the twenty-four hours 
longer than at their own homes. Without exception 
where access to proper food has been possible the tend- 
ency has been to increase in weight in our winters. 

Labrador has no endemic disease, and though, like all 
subarctic countries, it is the home of many mosquitoes, 
there is no malaria. Notwithstanding the great number 
of Eskimo dogs bred and kept in the country, I have 
never known nor heard of a single case of either hydro- 



70 LABRADOR 

phobia or of the Tcenia echinococcus, or fatal tapeworm, 
that dogs transmit to man. 

The restorative influence of a holiday in Labrador on 
a jaded and overwrought system is often truly wonderful, 
and I feel sure that, under proper conditions, a constitution 
will be toned up much faster than in the summer resorts. 
Commander Peary has recently added his testimony to the 
great value of the Arctic air to consumptives. 

There has somehow got abroad an idea that Labrador 
is continually wrapped in fog. This is an entirely erroneous 
idea, and has arisen from the fact that at the line of junction 
of the Gulf and polar currents, in the regions of the Banks 
of Newfoundland and England, more or less fog is preva- 
lent. As a matter of fact, fog is almost left behind at the 
Strait of Belle Isle. Many times as we have steamed out 
of the strait in thick fog, and passed the southeast corner 
of Labrador, we emerged from what, on looking back, re- 
sembled a dark wall, to bask suddenly in the clearest of 
sunshine. 

As master of my own vessel for nearly thirty years on 
the coast, I can say that the delays that I have experi- 
enced in the summer from fog between Battle Harbour 
and Cape Chidley have been quite immaterial. On the 
average, however, a more or less foggy day about once 
a fortnight may be expected. 

The rainfall again is exceptionally small, and the 
amount of snow that falls in the eight winter months, 
which is at that time the rain of the country, is not 
sufficient to leave a permanent ice-cap even on the 
highest peaks. There are no accurate statistics avail- 
able to show exactly what the rainfall is. A certain 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 71 

land surveyor who, with a party, spent four months on 
the Grand River and not far from the very centre of 
the country, experienced only one-half day during which 
rain prevented his party from working. On the other 
hand, the amount of sunshine is well up to the av- 
erage. One might say that in summer one day in 
three is altogether sunny; one day in three is partly 
sunny; one day in three, dull. As these deductions are 
not the result of accurate, scientific records, I can 
only offer them as the results of my own general 
notes from year to year. Fog is seldom found in the 
fyords as one gets north unless with prolonged easterly 
wind. 

The summer temperature of both air and water varies 
greatly as one leaves the coast and goes up the bays. This 
remarkable feature of the coast is due to the combination 
of two influences — that of the southerly latitude within 
which Labrador lies, and that of the polar current which 
sweeps right home to its Atlantic shore. When one con- 
siders that the southern point of Labrador is on the same 
parallel of latitude as London, and its most northern point 
only the same as the north of Scotland, one can understand 
how in summer the sun's rays are very effective in warm- 
ing the atmosphere in localities untouched by the polar 
current. The summer temperature of the outside water 
averages, at the surface, from 40° to 45° F., while ten 
fathoms down it sinks to nearly 35° F., and at thirty 
fathoms is from 30° to 35° F. When, however, one gets 
near the head of a bay, say twenty miles in from the coast, 
the temperature at the surface may be as high as 50° F. 
and at the heads of the big bays, especially above Rigolet 



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72 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 



73 



in Hamilton Inlet, even higher. The diurnal range of the 
summer air temperature in the bays is not great. 

This systematic relation of temperatures produces the 
result that, though on the coast one can grow, as vegetables, 
only stringy cabbages and leaves of turnips, at the bay 
heads, carrots, potatoes, cabbages, turnips, currants, rasp- 
berries, and gooseberries grow with readiness. The average 
temperature in summer for southern Labrador is about 
50° F. On the coast the diurnal range may be from 30° 
to 80° and in the bays from 45° to 90° F. 

The lists (on this and the opposite page) of average 
monthly temperatures are taken from the records of the 
Deutsche Seewarte, as copied here from the report of His 
Excellency, Sir William MacGregor: — 

Table (2) of Mean, Maximum, and Minimum Temperatures for 
Entire Years (Degrees Fahrenheit) 



Place 


Lat. N. 


Years 


Mean 


Max. 


MlN. 


Range. 


Ramah 


58° 53' 


'84-'88 


22.64 








Hebron 


58° 12' 


'84-'91 


21.2 








Hebron 


58° 12' 


'86 


26.8 




-33.8 




Hebron 


58° 12' 


'87 


26.5 


76.1 


-38.0 


114.1 


Hebron 


58° 12' 


'88 


27.8 


79.8 


- 36.4 


116.2 


Hebron 


58° 12' 


'90 


25.5 


86.2 


-38.0 


124.2 


Hebron 


58° 12' 


'91 


23.3 


83.3 


- 40.5 


123.8 


Hebron 


58° 12' 


'94-'95 




72.5 


- 19.1 


91.1 


Okak 


57° 34' 


'84-'88 


21.9 








Nain 


56° 33' 


'84-'90 


21.92 








Zoar 


56° or 


'84-'90 


22.28 








Hopedale 


55° 27' 


'84-'90 


24.08 









74 LABBADOB 

. In a country like Labrador the seasons are so marked, 
and bring with them such great changes, that one must 
know exactly at what time to come in order to enjoy any 
favourite pastime to the best advantage, or pursue any 
particular object. One visitor landed on the coast, and we 
drove him over a frozen harbour in the end of May. He 
had been enjoying fresh strawberries at home before he 
left, and expected to find summer here, and not our last 
month of winter. I may therefore give a brief description 
of the seasons so that one can tell at a glance what is likely 
to be going on at any particular portion of the year. 

January. The second coldest of the winter months; 
only occasional temperatures above freezing, and then only 
for a short spell. The whole country everywhere is under 
ice and snow. The first winter mail arrives from Quebec 
by dog train. Natural bridges make it possible to cross 
all the rivers, bays, and arms of the sea. Thus, travelling 
is usually begun in this month, though in the green woods 
snow is not yet hard packed, and consequently one has to go 
round the " drogues," as we call them. The dogs are able 
to go fifty to sixty miles in a day. The shortness of the 
days is the chief drawback. The settlers are all in their 
homes in the woods at the heads of the bays. They are 
trapping fur, hunting deer, and lumbering. The great 
herds of deer are in the low marshes and woods near the 
land-wash, and are often obtainable in great plenty. Willow 
grouse and rabbits are plentiful at times in the woods. 
Harp seals are being netted as they pass south along the 
Labrador coast. The sea is impossible to navigation 
during this month. 

February. The coldest month with seldom any " let up" 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 75 

— temperature in the north even falling on rare occasions 
to 45-50° below zero F. Travelling is improved by the 
heavier falls of snow, which fill the dangerous hollows and 
smooth off the rough, rocky points. The Arctic ice blocks 
the coast and keeps the swell from breaking up the ice in 
the bays. The Strait of Belle Isle is choked. The hood 
and harp seals are working southwards in the sea off New- 
foundland and in the Gulf, to whelp on the loose floes around 
which they find the fish. Fox-trapping with hunting for 
marten or sables, minks, musquash, and other species is in 
full swing on the land. 

March. A splendid, bright, bracing, cold month. The 
reflection of the sun from the snow makes it imperative to 
protect the eyes with coloured spectacles, since a single 
day's exposure will blind a man. The skin gets so tanned 
that whites begin to resemble Indians in colour. White 
settlers never lose the tawny colour. This constant sun 
bath, in spite of the low temperatures, has an excellent 
tonic effect on weakly people. The snow is now hard, and 
it is as easy to travel through thick woods as in the open. 
Much longer distances can be covered by the dogs in a day ; 
they can be given their heads to choose their own paths. 
Furs are in their prime. The annual seal hunt from New- 
foundland takes place, and all along the southern seaboard 
the settlers are on the watch for baby seals on the ice. 
Some of the birds are breeding, e.g. the Canada jay. Settlers 
are cutting logs and hauling them out for summer fire-wood. 
Some traps are now taken up, as certain furs cease to be 
in prime condition. 

April. The bright, hot sun in the middle of the day 
begins to thaw the snow, which freezes hard again at night. 



76 LABRADOR 

Travelling is done mostly in the early morning. The ice at 
times clears off enough to leave a narrow strip of open water 
along the exposed coast. Ducks and geese, with other 
smaller birds, such as the snow-bunting and the northern 
shrike, begin to arrive from the south. Some men are now 
netting seals if the season is early ; others are still working at 
twine for summer use. Shooting sea-birds from the head- 
lands offers good sport. Fur shows clear loss in value. 
Many settlers return to summer fishing stations, using dogs 
and komatiks to transport all their summer necessities out 
to the islands. Others who take care of and repair the sta- 
tions of our summer visitors are hard at work on houses 
and stagings. On fine days these men, while at their out- 
side work, venture off on the running ice. Most years, 
however, the ice is too hard near the shore, and to go off 
far from shore, hauling small boats on runners, is restricted 
to the hardier and more venturesome. Through the ice of 
the ponds in southern Labrador, good trout fishing can be 
obtained. 

May. Navigation as far as the south part of the east 
coast is practicable, though onshore winds will bring the 
floe-ice in at any time and block all the harbours and bays. 
Still, one or two venturesome vessels come down with safety 
to southern Labrador, seldom taking any harm from the 
ice beyond what they are liable to at any time of year. 
American bankers are baiting in the straits, and French 
fishermen from Newfoundland arrive on the Treaty Shore 
opposite. The first steamer to carry mails leaves St. 
John's for Labrador. The rivers and bays break up. The 
last of the people move out to their summer homes for the 
fishery. Good trout fishing is to be had in the rivers or in 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 77 

the lakes through the ice. Foxes have their young and 
sea-birds are nesting all along the coast on the islands and 
rocks. Many people gather the eggs and store them for 
eating. Traps are all taken in by the first day, as the fur 
is now losing colour and the long ' ' king ' ' hairs fall. Seals 
are beating north ; swatching or shooting them from the 
ice pans as they come up to take breath forms a very fa- 
vourite pastime. Old harps and bedlamer seals are caught 
on southern Labrador in great frame nets. Farther north 
the Eskimo are hunting the walrus. The deer are all going 
north and taking to the hills. The native bears leave their 
caves ; any white bears that have gone south on the floes 
begin to work north again. 

June. Most of the snow has gone, though in places it 
remains to the water-level. Ground is still hard frozen, 
with occasional frosts at night. Arctic ice still besets the 
coast. Fishing vessels work down along the straits and 
the southern part of the east coast. Some years the mail 
boat gets as far as Hamilton Inlet ; other years ice inside 
the islands is as hard as at any time in the winter. In the 
straits the cod-fishery is in full swing, while on the east coast 
the southerners in their schooners are up the bays get- 
ting wood for firing, for stages, etc. Americans, Canadians, 
and West Coast Newfoundlanders are trawling in the straits 
and Gulf. The sea is very calm, owing to the ice outside. 
The brilliancy of the sun, the innumerable icebergs, the 
return of the whales, and the fleets of fishing vessels make 
the scenic effects some of the best in the year. In the inlets 
the salmon and trout fisheries are being prosecuted. Deer 
seek the hills to avoid the mosquitoes. The does are with 
their fawns in the woods. Black bear seek the fish along 



78 LABRADOR 

the land-wash. Most of the small bird visitors from the 
south have arrived. Lean dogs wander about everywhere, 
searching for meat, for they are no longer fed, and as yet 
there are no fish heads and offal for them. 

July. Most of the ice and snow gone from the land. 
The ground at the heads of the bays thaws out enough to 
sow seed. The mail steamer now usually reaches her 
northern limit at Nain, visiting all along as she goes. The 
caplin are working into the land farther north and at- 
tracting the codfish. Salmon in the river begin to take 
the fly. The young ducks and other sea-birds are hatched 
out. Pleasure schooners can get down among the Eskimo 
who are now out at their summer fishing stations in skin 
tents. The salmon fishing with nets in the inlets is going 
on, and the cod-fishery begins with the caplin school. Mos- 
quitoes hatch out and are troublesome. 

August. Southern cod-fishers reach their extreme north- 
ern limit, and fish are taken as far as Cape Chidley. 
Caplin begin to die or leave the shore, cod following them 
out of the bays. The salmon-fishery in the sea is at an 
end. The salmon and trout in the rivers rise to the fly 
well. The best fiords and least-known northern bays are 
accessible to pleasure yachts. Icebergs in greatest abun- 
dance are now to be seen. They are continually driving 
south with the Arctic current. The flappers of water-fowl 
are big enough to shoot. Old ducks and divers are moulting, 
and, being unable to fly, escape pursuit only by diving. 
The first foreign vessels with dried fish leave the coast. 
Cloudberries and other berries, e.g. bilberries, currants, 
raspberries, begin to ripen. Formerly large flocks of 
curlew came down to feed on these. The young geese in 
the bays are beginning to fly. 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 79 

September. Hooks and lines replace the large trap nets, 
as the cod are now only to be taken in deep water. Northern 
schooners begin to come south with cargoes of green fish. 
The first snow falls about Cape Chidley, and frosts begin 
to set in at nights. Deer are to be had in the country. 
Geese and black duck are seeking the salt water in the day- 
time, and may be shot flighting. The mosquitoes are no 
longer troublesome. Grouse are to be shot on the hills, 
and afford excellent sport. Small migratory birds begin 
to leave. Berries are plentiful and add materially to a 
camper's menu. Caribou leave the hills for the marshes. 
All together, this is the best month for sportsmen to visit 
Labrador, except for salmon-fishing. 

October. The southern fishermen mostly leave. Pleasure 
schooners must do the same. Fish are still to be taken in 
deep water with long lines. Frosts at night are often 
severe, and many harbours begin to " catch over" with ice. 

Ducks and geese leave the coast. Deer are rutting, but 
are now nearer the seaboard in the leads and marshes. 
The winds are high and cold, but they are nearly all westerly 
and off the land ; thus the sea is often smooth alongshore. 
The most disastrous storms, however, have occurred in 
this month. All the trappers are busy taking supplies into 
the country and preparing their traps. Otters, foxes, 
mink, beaver, etc., come in season. They are, however, 
not really "prime." Large Labrador herring are taken 
in gill nets. Lesser auks, puffins, murrelets, and other 
diving sea-birds are very plentiful, passing south. The 
lakes all freeze over, and the hilltops are all capped with 
snow. 

November. The last of the southerners leave. The 



80 LABRADOR 

mail steamer makes her last visit. Winter has really 
arrived. Not a craft left afloat on the coast by the end 
of the month. Trapping is specially now for foxes and 
mink on the seaboard. Many settlers on the " outside " 
are engaged with seal nets. The rest have gone to their 
homes among the trees at the bottom of the long bays. 

The last of the ducks and geese leave. Hares, rabbits, 
grouse, etc., assume their winter colouring. Dogs are now 
fed up for their winter work. Lumbermen are in the 
woods cutting logs. 

December. The short days tend to make this the most 
dismal month, but the dog driving begins and the assump- 
tion of snow-shoes, or "ski," also helps to enliven matters. 
Any game killed now will remain good till June, being 
hard frozen as soon as killed. All along northern Labra- 
dor many seals are being netted. Even the large rivers 
are now safe to cross on the ice, but in some of the arms 
of the sea there is still no ice that will bear, owing to the 
tide. Some of the best furs are now taken in the country. 
The first dog mail leaves for Quebec at Christmas, 




The Well-beloved Mail-man 



CHAPTER IV 

THE GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OP THE NORTHEAST COAST 
By Reginald Aldworth Daly 

"The Labrador Peninsula is less known than the interior 
of Africa or the wastes of Siberia.' ' In these words the 
noted naturalist,, Mr. A. S. Packard, in 1891, summed up 
existing information on that anciently discovered but long- 
neglected land. Low's fruitful journeys across Labrador 
have added much to the store of knowledge, but there is 
even now but little exaggeration in Packard's statement. 
It was therefore with great and prolonged interest that the 
members of the Brave expedition of 1900 studied the 700 
miles of coast from the Strait of Belle Isle to the Hudson's 
Bay post in Nachvak Bay. The Brave was a tight little 
schooner of but forty tons, specially fitted up to be the home 
of the exploring party for the summer. The party con- 
sisted of five Harvard men and one man from Brown Uni- 
versity. Three seamen and a pilot captain with a miracu- 
lous knowledge of the ten thousand islands, shoals, rocks, 
channels, and landmarks of "the Labrador," sailed the little 
vessel. 

Leaving St. John's, Newfoundland, on June 25, the 
schooner coasted all the way to Nachvak, which was 
reached on August 22. This slow passage gave the explor- 
ing party numerous opportunities to sample the natural 
history and geology of the coast. One member of the expe- 
ct 81 



82 LABRADOR 

dition or "exhibition/' as the fishermen with unconscious 
humour and truth called it, was an amateur botanist, an- 
other an ornithologist, a third a prospector, a fourth a 
geologist, and the others enthusiastic hunters. The writer 
was busied with the geology of the coast, and most of the 
observations noted in the following pages refer to results 
obtained during that season. 1 

To know Labrador is to know its geology. The visitor 
to the northeast coast, were he to go thither to study thor- 
oughly its climate, its scenery, its botany or zoology, its 
peoples or few industries, must come upon the final ques- 
tion concerning all of these: whence came they? When 
fully answered, he shall have been told the story of the phys- 
ical growth of the peninsula. Each bird, beast, or man; 
each moor, tundra, ragged reef, swelling granite dome or 
fretted mountain- ridge on all the thousand miles of shore, 
forms a link in the chain that binds the present with the 
inconceivably distant past of the earth. And seldom else- 
where is the explorer's mind so forced to the thought of an 
ancient evolution. The great rocky headlands, looming 
first out of the fog; the deep, quiet fiord or island-labyrinth 
receiving the stranger vessel as she runs in from the open 
sea ; the vast, moss-coloured landscapes on the wilderness of 
hills ; the stately train of icebergs or the yet mightier ocean- 
current that bears them southward, — these first views, 
startling in their savageness, charming in their mantle of 
colour, astonishing in their extent, always of enthralling 
interest as the elements of a new kind of world, can never 

1 A technical report on the geology appears in the Bulletins of the 
Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, Vol. ,38, 
p. 205, 1902. l ~ - - 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 83 

fail to rouse a very ardour for exploration. In England, 
France, or Germany, the peoples, the culture, cities, rail- 
roads, institutions, must claim the traveller first, and the 
primitive, the soil, the ground of Europe, only second. 
In most of Labrador, Nature, supreme in her loneliness, 
calls first, last, and always. 

Like every science, earth-science is the result of restless, 
eternal questioning, much of it answered, infinitely more 
unanswered. He thinks especially in questions who thinks 
at all in Labrador geology ; it forms a mass of problems for 
the most part unsolved. Yet some of these have such 
importance that the mere statement of them has value, and 
when further exploration has given the solutions, it will be 
found that the scientific study of Labrador will have brought 
a rich store to man's knowledge of the whole earth. Rather, 
therefore, to erect finger-posts pointing the way to wide 
fields of research than to indicate that much is known of 
the Labrador coast, the pages of this chapter have been 
written. 

So far geologists and geographers have accomplished 
nothing more than a rapid reconnaissance of the coast. 
That stage of exploration has a borrowed name, and in some 
respects explorers are compelled to regard the new land as 
an enemy — to be conquered at some cost. More or less 
" roughing it," almost always a degree of hard though repay- 
ing toil, the bite of the sun or the bite of the polar wind — 
all form " part of the game," a kind of war-game. An expe- 
dition to the Labrador has assuredly to meet with such 
troubles and a few special ones besides. In early summer a 
sailing craft must meet with the wide fields of pan-ice which 
unite with the " Labrador" ocean-current and prevalent 



84 LABRADOR 

northwest winds to prevent a speedy progress "down" the 
coast. Ashore, at any point from Belle Isle to Hebron, 
the " enemy" assumes a new face much more repellent. 
Many a time has every naturalist ashore on the coast 
during July or August been driven from his work or through 
it by Labrador's greatest plague — the almost incredible 
mosquito and black fly. In countless swarms of countless 
individuals they attack hands, face, and neck necessarily 
unprotected in the collection of specimens or in the manipu- 
lation of instruments. It is written that the grasshopper 
may be a burden, but he is a small angel of light compared 
to the Labrador u fly." 

In Newfoundland the mosquito and gnat have had an 
apologist who, in all fairness, should be heard. Thus writes 
Whitbourne, the optimist: " Those Flies seeme to haue a 
great power and authority upon all loytering people that 
come to the New-found-land : for they have this property, 
that when they finde any such lying lazily, or sleeping in the 
Woods, they will presently bee more nimble to seize on 
them, than any Sargeant will bee to arrest a man for debt. 
Neither will they leaue stinging or sucking out the blood 
of such sluggards, untill, like a Beadle, they bring him to 
his Master, where hee should labour: in which time of 
Loytering, those Flies will so brand such idle persons in 
their faces, that they may be known from others, as the 
Turkes doe their slaves." 

But to the explorer, especially to the geologist, there is 
another side to the matter — an occasion for keen pleasure 
in spite of every disability in the way of advance or in 
comfort. Once beyond the fog-curtain so often let down 
over the Strait of Belle Isle, he can enjoy a climate made for 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 85 

strenuous outdoor work. If he be interested in bed-rock 
geology, he finds conditions comparable to those that 
favour observation in "The Paradise of geologists," the arid 
or subarid plateaus of the western United States. Here as 
there the climate forbids the growth of the heavy forest- 
cap which covers so much of the geological record in arable 
lands, and in Labrador the intense glaciation of the last 
Glacial epoch has left remarkably little rock-rubbish or 
"drift" on the surface of the well-scoured and still rela- 
tively unweathered, fresh rock. The geologist leaves the 
coast, therefore, well content if he has had time to make 
anything like an extended reconnaissance of the enemy; 
there remains as well the stimulus to hope for a future 
campaign. 

Labrador is the land of charm, whether it be among the 
low, moss-covered islands of the south or on the superb 
mountains of the north. But this charm hitherto de- 
scribed in terms of impressions derived from visits to what 
is really southern Labrador is a hundred fold greater in the 
region north of Cape Mugford. 

Yet throughout the whole stretch from Belle Isle to 
Hudson Strait the scenery is to be related, sooner or later, 
to one great group of geological formations, all rocks of 
the remotest antiquity; and perhaps no more fitting 
introduction to the geology and geography of the coast 
is to be found than to describe the extensive fundamental 
terrane. It belongs for the most part to the Archean series, 
offering like the Archean rocks of the world, problems of 
extreme difficulty. Able and highly trained geologists, 
specialists in the Archean, during the past thirty years have 
solved some of these problems, but it is still fair to call this 



86 LABRADOR 

vast group of rocks forming the staple material of the Lab- 
rador coast by a name confessing at once some knowledge 
and much ignorance. The Archean formations compose the 
foundation on which the Continent of North America has 
been built. Resting upon its ancient surface are the 
rock-beds bearing the skeleton remains of the earliest 
known organisms, and upon those beds have been accumu- 
lated in turn the limestones, shales, sandstones, conglom- 
erates, and lavas, which make up most of the continent. 
That is one of the main facts known about the Archean, — 
it is a basement formation. Another fact, no less certain, 
no less important, is that the Archean is complex in its 
composition, in its structure, and in its history. Let us, 
then, call these old rocks by their time-honoured name, "the 
Basement Complex." 

Here and there on the earth the younger, covering rocks 
have been swept away by age-long weathering and wasting, 
and the ancient foundation has been exposed to the air. 
Nowhere on the earth is so great a continuous area of the 
Archean to be found as in eastern Canada. From Lake 
Winnipeg to the Atlantic, and from the St. Lawrence and 
Ottawa rivers northward to the Arctic, the Basement 
Complex, still locally bearing on its back patches of the 
younger rocks, forms a rolling, timber-covered plateau, 
which amazes every explorer who compares the simplicity of 
its present-day relief with the infinite turmoil through which 
its constituent rocks have passed. These rocks are almost 
entirely crystalline — gneisses, schists, marbles, coarser 
crystalline limestones, and granitic rocks of endless variety 
— agreeing, however, in the telling of a common story, that 
the Complex is the remnant of enormous mountain-systems 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 87 

long battered by the weather of ancient days, and so long 
and successfully attacked and lowered by streams, that 
already very early in the earth's history these mountains 
had been flattened to a relief probably as tamed as that of 
the great Canadian plateau to-day. It was this old-moun- 
tain plain, or almost-plain, which formed the nucleus of 
North America. No one can say as yet, even approximately, 
how much the old plateau has been affected by the destruc- 
tion of the millions of years since it was reelevated from 
beneath the sea, with its mantling load of Cambrian, 
Silurian, Devonian, and later sediments. Again and again 
the Basement has been, wholly or in part, alternately above 
and below sea-level. With each emergence it has lost sub- 
stance, and with each loss a new physical geography has 
been developed upon it. 

When a mountain-system is young, its summits are 
ranged more or less systematically in straight or slightly 
curved lines joining the crests of the various ranges. When 
the system is very old, that is, worn down flat by age-long 
wasting, these same trends may still be recognized in the 
structure of the mountain-roots. A normal range owes its 
existence, not so much to simple uplift of the earth's crust 
as to an intense folding and crumpling together of its rock- 
strata by powerful forces acting tangentially with reference 
to the curve of the earth and transverse to the axis of the 
range. If, therefore, the Basement Complex forms the 
root of an old mountain-system, the natural inquiry arises 
as to the trend of the rock-bands now visible to the geolo- 
gist; for these, even in the absence of the long- vanished 
mountainous relief, will tell the direction of the old ranges 
and, by implication, the direction of the great compressive 



88 



LABRADOR 



forces which set the earth's crust writhing so long ago, and 
so built one of earth's earliest mountain-systems. 

Rather, then, to raise the question than to declare an 




Fig. 13. 
Sketch map showing mountain trends in eastern North America. 

answer to it, the writer has prepared the diagram of Figure 13, 
embodying a tentative conclusion, the result of observa- 
tions at some twenty-five localities on "the Labrador." 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 89 

The little map is intended to show that there is definite 
trend to the rocks of the Basement Complex, and that this 
trend has a remarkable parallelism with the present north- 
east coast of the peninsula. That is, the edges of the worn- 
down, folded schists and other rocks, like the axes of the 
folds, run parallel to the general shore-line. It looks as if 
this part of the Basement Complex were originally built 
up by mighty earth-forces acting in a northeast-southwest 
direction and raising a distinct and lofty mountain-chain 
on the line of the present coast. Further exploration is 
necessary before the conclusion can be considered as final, 
but Dr. Bell's discovery in the Baffin Land Archean of 
what would appear to be the continuation of the same 
" Labrador trend" (thus extending more than 1300 miles) 
lends force to the idea. 

In Figure 13, heavy black lines diagrammatically repre- 
sent the " Labrador trend," and others represent the various 
elements in both relief and rock-structure which belong to 
the great Appalachian mountain-system. The two trends 
meet at the Strait of Belle Isle. The "Labrador trend" 
locates one of the most ancient (Pre-Cambrian) mountain- 
ranges of America; the Appalachian trend characterizes 
the much younger (Post-Carboniferous) system that in- 
cludes the Alleghanies, the Blue Ridge, the White Moun- 
tains, the Green Mountains, and the lower ranges of New 
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. Where so 
little has been done in the field, one must hold but loosely 
to the idea of a definite law of structure in Canada's most 
difficult terrane, but it is believed to be a fair and just, 
perhaps helpful, working hypothesis to govern further 
exploration. 



90 LABRADOR 

It would be tedious and not very profitable to the general 
reader to describe all the different types of rock found in 
the Basement Complex ; yet a few principal considerations 
will serve to indicate the kind of material which goes 
to form the bed-rock of the coast, and serve, also, to 
outline the grand march of events that gave us modern 
Labrador. 

With but rare exceptions the rocks of the Basement 
Complex are allied to that most familiar rock, granite. 
Like granite they are aggregates of common minerals like 
quartz, feldspar, mica, hornblende, augite, magnetite, etc 
These are always crystalline, though rarely does any mineral 
show crystal facets to the eye. The minerals interlock 
in the intimate way characteristic of granite. Further- 
more, these rocks bear witness to one common fact of origin 
with granite. They formed, crystallized, under the press- 
ure of overlying rock which has long since been swept away 
— eaten away by the weathering and decay of ages, eroded 
by the " tooth of Time." Many of the individual rock- 
masses are known to have resulted from the crystallization 
of once molten rock-material, cooled slowly as its heat was 
conducted through the heavy cover of rock above. Such is 
believed to have been the origin of all granites. Others of 
the Labrador rocks seem to have crystallized at a tempera- 
ture high enough to allow of the rearrangement of their 
ultimate particles from former quite different associations, 
yet at a temperature too low for actual fusion of the rocks. 
Such are the conditions within the heart of a mountain- 
range as it grows, its rocks crumpling together, piling up, 
fracturing, and making way before great bodies of the 
molten matter erupted from the interior of the earth ; such 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 91 

were unquestionably the conditions under which the old 
Archean chain of Labrador was upheaved. 

As we have seen, enormous lateral pressure, pressure too 
great to be comprehended by the human mind, ridged up 
the rocks to alpine heights. During that process much of 
the crystallization and recrystallization of the Archean 
rocks took place. It was, therefore, natural that the min- 
erals of the rocks should be arranged with reference to the 
pressure. They might be expected to lie in the rock with 
their longer axes perpendicular to the lines of force, assum- 
ing thus the position offering greatest resistance to that 
force. This is the case for probably much the largest area 
of rock in the coastal belt. Many granites and allied rocks 
which had been " intruded," in the molten state, into the 
base of the range, were squeezed by the continued appli- 
cation of the same mountain-building forces, and their 
minerals, too, have been crushed and driven into alignment 
at right angles to the direction of pressure. So it has come 
about that the commonest rocks found on the coast are 
what are called " crystalline schists": gneisses, which are 
like granite in composition but show on the broken surface 
the parallelism of the minerals ; mica schists, with the same 
(schistose) structure, yet lacking the white or pink feldspar 
crystals of gneiss ; hornblende schists, in which the familiar 
mica is replaced by the less familiar but likewise important 
mineral, hornblende; and a large number of other rock- 
species of similar structure. 

The nature of the original material from which the crys- 
talline schists have been made, that is, the composition 
of the earth's crust in a mountainous region before the moun- 
tain-building began, is one of the most interesting problems 



92 LABRADOR 

before geologists to-day. It has been proved in certain fa- 
vourable localities that such schists are the result of the alter- 
ation of more ancient slates, sandstones, conglomerates, vol- 
canic ash, and lava-flows, under the same conditions as once 
obtained within the Archean range of northeastern Labra- 
dor. Here again is a wide field open to further exploration. 
The geologist who seriously studies these coastal rocks of 
Labrador, wonderfully exposed as they are, may some day 
establish new principles of interpretation, or confirm those 
now forming the basis of modern earth-science. 

During the paroxysmal though extremely slow growth 
of a lofty, alpine mountain-range, other changes of great 
moment occur in the deep, highly heated core of the range. 
The foundations of the huge pile are unloosed, and enormous 
blocks of the solid rocks are displaced by molten or 
thoroughly plastic matter, thrust up into the range by 
titanic subterranean force. There cooling, this material 
crystallizes into solid rocks of the granite type. As it 
crystallizes, the whole mass may be pulled out in the 
wrenching shear of mountain-building, much as soft pitch 
may be drawn out in the hands. In such a case the min- 
erals composing the new rock are arranged in lines, and not 
in planes, as in ordinary schists. An unusually fine example 
is exhibited on a large scale at Pottle's Cove, West Bay, 
halfway between Belle Isle and Hamilton Inlet. The 
rock is there a common light pinkish gray granite possessing . 
this curious arrangement of its constituents — a witness 
to the " storm and stress" period of Archean mountain 
growth. 

Late in the mountain-building period there occurred one 
of the most important underground events yet chronicled 




to 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 93 

in Labrador. For at least fifty miles along the coast from 
Ford Harbour northward, and for many miles inland, the 
older formations of the range were in some manner displaced 
by a huge body of molten rock. This enormous mass 
crystallized into a solid rock precisely analogous to common 
granite in having solidified under a cover of older, over- 
lying schists or strata. The latter have since been worn 
away, and to-day the once deeply buried " intrusive" body 
is visible in mountain stubs covering hundreds of square 
miles. The rock is called "gabbro"; in composition it is 
often similar to basalt, the commonest of lavas, i.e. such rocks 
as have been erupted at the earth's surface from volcanic 
vents. Like basalt, the gabbro has a specially dark colour, 
that which dominates the island-cliffs and mainland-moun- 
tains of the region about Nain. These highlands are bare 
of both soil and vegetation, and the black slopes impress 
the eye with a sense of sombre, almost terrible, majesty 
even greater than is given by their mere altitude and savage 
sculpturing. Aulatsivik Island ("The Ruler") and Paul's 
Island, lying in a whole archipelago of smaller, rounded, 
hummocky islands or ragged skerries, offer numerous land- 
ing-places where the formation can be studied. 

As in other occurrences within the Canadian Archean, 
the gabbro is chiefly made up of a wonderfully beautiful 
mineral, a feldspar, first recognized as a distinct species 
during the examination of hand-specimens brought many 
years ago to Europe from Paul's Island. The species was 
called " labradorite " in its first description, and the name 
is still employed to signify one of the main constituents 
of the earth's crust. It is predominant not only in gabbro 
and gabbro-like rocks, but as well in the bulk of the world's 



94 LABRADOR 

volcanic rock. Labradorite early attracted the attention 
of mineralogists and of the much larger class of persons 
interested in gems and in the beauty of colour in inorganic 
nature. Owing to the peculiar internal structure of the 
mineral, white light penetrating its glassy surfaces is broken 
up into its coloured components . Some of these are absorbed 
in the mineral and do not affect the eye; the remainder 
are reflected from myriads of microscopic particles within 
the feldspar and afford tinted light-rays of exquisite beauty. 
Purples, violets, and blues, flashing like flame out of the 
iridescent crystals, are the prevailing colours, but bronze, 
yellow, green, orange, and red are not uncommon. The 
individual feldspars vary greatly in size, the diameters 
ranging from a quarter of an inch or less to six or eight 
inches. As rocks go, the gabbro is always coarse-grained, 
but the finest labradorite is found in the numerous veins 
of specially coarse rock which crop out irregularly on the 
ledges. 

An enterprising American has attempted to market 
the labradorite as a semi-precious decorative stone. He 
opened a quarry on a small island (Napoktulagatsuk) 
situated some twelve miles south of Nain. Dr. Grenfell 
had the kindness to place the steamer Strathcona for a 
day at the disposal of the members of the Brave expedi- 
tion, and the writer was thus enabled to visit the quarry. 
It was found that sufficient blasting had been done to 
remove the weathered rock at the surface. Notwith- 
standing the fact that the more beautiful material had 
been shipped away, the fresh surfaces of the rock presented 
a unique and striking appearance. The iridescence could 
be discerned in almost every part, but a perfect glory of 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 95 

colour flashed from the coarse, vein-like patches in the rock. 
With each changing angle of vision a new splendour of 
gorgeously tinted rays shot out of the finely contrasted dark 
gray of the general rock-surface. It is no wonder that every 
effort should have been made to market the stone. Yet, 
with all their resources, Tiffany and Company have had 
to decide against the success of the material as a gem. 
One of the chief difficulties in working the stone lies in 
its extremely brittle and cleavable nature, forbidding the 
production of a well-polished surface. The conditions of 
nature do not, however, prevent the collection of many 
uncut specimens of exceeding beauty. The finest material 
yet seen in the bed-rock occurs on or near Napoktulagatsuk. 
The settlers on the coast report abundant iridescent lab- 
radorite also on Mt. Pikey, southwest of Ford Harbour. 

A complete account of this interesting formation would 
necessarily involve a description of the other minerals 
composing the gabbro, but that would carry the reader far 
into the domain of the rock-specialist. 

The relative ages, areal distribution, and exact com- 
position of the hundreds of igneous rock-bodies between 
Belle Isle and Cape Chidley must be left almost entirely 
to future discovery. From the magnificent exposure of 
these terranes a splendid harvest can be promised to all 
geological expeditions to the coast. 

The Nain gabbro seems to have been " intruded" into 
the older rocks after the mountain-building, with its folding 
and crumpling, was nearly completed. This at least ap- 
pears to be the testimony of the rock-ledges themselves. 
If the gabbro had already been crystallized out before any 
considerable amount of the lateral crumpling still remained 



96 LABRADOR 

to be applied, the minerals of the existing rock should 
show the crushing and granulation due to the strain of 
the later mountain-building. Such has been the fate of 
great masses of this gabbro in other parts of Labrador 
and in Quebec, but, so far as known, the coast gabbros 
have escaped extensive crushing. 

The same remark applies to a quite different class of 
intrusive rocks which leap to the eye of every observer on 
the coast. Toward the close of the epoch of mountain- 
growth in the Basement Complex, perhaps at or near the 
date of the great gabbro intrusion, the base of the entire 
range from Belle Isle to Chidley was fissured and, in a 
sense, shattered. To that event there contributed the 
irregular contraction of the granites and highly heated 
schists as they cooled, and doubtless, also, a general settling 
down of the ridged-up crust after the earth's paroxysm 
was over. Countless cracks and fissures were thus formed 
far down below the lofty, rugged surface of the range. The 
fissures were seldom, if ever, left gaping. So soon as formed 
and in the very act of forming, they were filled with highly 
molten basaltic rock which then froze or crystallized. 
Thus the range was strongly knitted together again. So 
firm was the new cementation of the shattered formations 
that the rocks filling the ancient fissures now form so many 
ribs strengthening the mountain-chain against the attack 
of the weather. All up and down the coast the gray sea- 
cliffs and mountain-slopes are seamed with these thousands 
of basaltic fissure-fillings, the so-called " dikes" of "trap." 
Wonderfully fine examples occur on the north side of the 
entrance to Hamilton Inlet. From the anchorage in Ice 
Tickle one should mount any one of the higher hills on either 





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H 


. • .••,* /■ '>• ■ • 



5 

PQ 

> 

o 

o 

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GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 97 

Ice Tickle Island or Rodney Mundy Island and cast his 
eye over the singularly varied landscape. Under his feet 
the observer will find the black ledges of trap. He speedily 
notes that all the rounded ridges or knob-like hills of the 
region have the same dark hue, and rightly concludes that 
they are composed of the same rock. Between the hills 
are short, broadly flaring valleys floored with light gray 
schistose rock peeping out through the moss or from 
beneath the curlewberry bushes and willows. Each of 
the two large islands, for about three-quarters of its surface, 
is underlain by the coarse-grained schists with some com- 
mon granite. The remaining fourth of the surface is un- 
derlain by the trap. Many of the ancient fissures have 
parallel walls which are from ten to a hundred feet or more 
apart ; others have doubly convex walls converging at the 
two ends of gigantic pods of trap up to a thousand feet in 
breadth and perhaps of twice that length. The trap being 
more resistant to the weather than the rocks it cuts, the 
hills have assumed the varying outlines of palisade, ridge, 
or dome, according to the shape of their respective bodies 
of intrusive rock. Such a landscape most tellingly declares 
the fact that in mountains generally, but especially in old 
mountains, the expression of the actual relief is really 
more controlled by the age-long sculpturing of the elements 
than by the original upheaval of the earth's crust. The 
uplift and folding together of strata but furnished the raw 
material; the carving out of valleys by the weather, and 
particularly the destruction of the softer rock-belts, leaving 
the more slowly wasting, harder ones projecting, have 
evolved the finished product, the mountain topography 
of the present day. 



98 



LABEADOR 



These dikes of trap often occur in nests, as at Ice Tickle, 
but, large or small, they are never wanting in any extended 
view of the shore. They form striking features in the frown- 
ing cliffs of the north; perhaps nowhere better displayed 
than in a score of huge, black, vertical seams of trap part- 
ing the schists of Mt. Blow-me-down. Another score of 




Fig. 14. 



From a photograph 



View of Striped Island, looking east. The highest point is about 200 feet 
above the, sea. The black bands represent horizontal sheets of trap, 
cutting the gneiss. 

parallel dikes cut through Webeck Island. On account 
of their great size — on Mt. Blow-me-down, ranging from 
one hundred to four hundred feet in width and exposed 
for thousands of feet along their walls — - these dikes are 
conspicuous even many miles offshore, compelling in the 
mind of every voyager wonder at the stupendous force 
that so cleaved the mountains to their mysterious depths. 
Such dikes appear in the view of Bear Island (opp. p. 130). 
They are small examples, but serve to show the essential 
characteristics and that contrast of colour which makes the 
dikes scenically important on the coast. Before the moun- 
tains were wasted away to their present low relief, these 
dikes extended upwards hundreds, if not many thousands, 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 99 

of feet. It is, indeed, possible that their fissures reached 
quite to the surface and built volcanic cones and lava 
plains long since destroyed. That inference is supported 
by the discovery on the Labrador of just such volcanic 
accumulations, although these have not yet been suffi- 
ciently studied to show actual connection between the 
lavas and the dikes of trap. That the latter were thrust 
into the fissures of the mountain-core with enough energy 
to force the molten rock to the surface is implied in the 
conditions of Figure 14. 

Striped Island gets its name from a remarkable group of 
thin, nearly horizontal sheets of black trap cutting common 
gray gneiss. The causes of the intrusion here may have 
differed from what they were in the case of the vertical 
dikes, which, as we have seen, entered the base of the moun- 
tain-range by a kind of permission ; great mountain blocks 
moved apart and permitted the plastic trap to enter the 
opening fissure. But the sheets of Striped Island, as they 
forced their way into place, had apparently to lift a rock- 
cover weighing countless millions of tons. Their intrusion 
began along so-called " joints"; that is, microscopic though 
continuous cracks previously developed in the gneiss. 
The imagination may well be staggered in the attempt 
to grasp the magnitude of a force which could so thrust 
fluid rock into almost infinitesimal cracks, wedging up a 
whole mountain in the process as if a Titan had worked 
with an omnipotent jack-screw; yet there seems to be no 
escape from the conclusion that such a wonderful display 
of power in the molten under-earth has taken place. 

In summary, then, the different formations composing 
the Basement Complex of Labrador, though understood 



100 LABBADOB 

only in the light of rapid and incomplete exploration, are 
to be viewed as those belonging to old-mountain stubs. 
The facts show with certainty that an enormous volume 
of rock has been carried away to the depths of the Atlantic, 
where the debris is accumulating to this day. Observa- 
tions in structure, too technical to be described in these 
pages, seem to show as clearly that the staple rocks of the 
Labrador were, in Archean times, built up into a gnarled 
and knotted mountain-system extensive in area and lofty 
in an Alpine, or even Himalayan, sense. 

But the imagination is not left entirely unaided in its 
attempt to reconstruct the Archean mountains. In com- 
paratively recent geologic time a portion of the Basement 
Complex on the Labrador has been warped up, i.e. bodily 
uplifted, so high that the streams of the country have been 
enabled to cut many thousands of feet down into the old 
rocks. As a result, the 150 miles of the coastal belt south- 
eastward from Cape Chidley presents to-day a rugged 
relief, rivalling in grandeur many famous Alps of Switzer- 
land and the Selkirks of the Canadian West. Here the 
strong topography has a distinct coastal trend, and its 
boldness forcibly suggests that there has been a veritable 
resurrection of the Archean mountain-chain. This long 
mountain-belt has been called the "Torngat" Range, 
from the Eskimo word for "bad spirits." A single view 
of the bare, forbidding, riven, and jagged cliffs of the 
saw-tooth ridges and alpine horns, whether seen in the 
interior or springing their thousands of feet from salt 
water in the fiords, leaves no wonder at the name. The 
absence of trees, the eerie loneliness of the whole land, and, 
in the countless gorges and ravines, the depth of shadow 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 101 

made startling by the brilliance of the high lights under 
a northern sun, might well cause the savage mind to people 
these mountains with sinister devils. 

A noble introduction to the Torngats is to be found as 
the vessel bound for Nachvak Bay rounds the long finger- 
like promontory of Gulch Cape, ten miles south of the Bay 
entrance. All along the shore cliffs of gray, naked rock, 
streaked with great black seams (dikes) of trap, rise 2000 to 
2500 feet directly out of the sea, and terminate in sharp 
peaks and ridges. One of the latter has been appro- 
priately named "Mt. Razor-back." Imagine four miles 
of a saw-toothed pile of rock, nearly 3500 feet high and 
furrowed on the seaward face by a score of deep gulches 
which cleave the mass from top to bottom, and each of 
the lateral ridges in like manner broken by a dozen ravines 
on each slope, and you have a picture of mountain-land 
without a parallel on all the American coast of the Atlantic 
to the southward. Between the great ridges open long, 
flat-floored valleys that have been moulded into their 
present forms by the glaciers of the Ice Age. During a 
memorable day the Brave beat up the Inlet, her crew and 
passengers enjoying an ever changing panorama recalling 
in its grandeur the cliffs and fiords of Norway. 

Nachvak Bay forms a trough running transverse to the 
range and heading some 30 miles from the Atlantic, at a 
point more than halfway across the mountain-belt. It is, 
therefore, fortunately situated for the exploration of the 
Torngats. For a half-dozen miles together its walls present 
steep, or even nearly vertical, precipices, their heads often 
covered with clouds a half-mile above the sea. At one 
salient angle formed by the meeting of two branches of 



102 LABRADOR 

the fiord, is such a cliff, 3400 feet high — twice the height 
of the famous Cape Eternity of the Saguenay fiord — the 
culminating point of a notched and bastioned wall ex- 
tending seven miles to the southward. Often the vivid 
and varied colouring of the rocks or the threads and broad 
ribbons of numerous waterfalls cascading over the cliffs 
enliven these scenes. How rarely the Inlet is visited ap- 
pears in the fact that our schooner was the first sailing 
vessel in eight years to cast anchor at the Hudson's Bay 
Company Post of Nachvak. 

Both to south and to north of the Bay the mountains are 
truly Alpine in form, their summits measuring more than 
6000 feet in altitude. Indeed, some 50 miles to the north- 
ward, at least one of the "Four Peaks" is believed to be 
over 7000 feet in height. In any case, it is not too much 
to say that the Torngats afford the most lofty land imme- 
diately adjacent to the coast in all the long stretch from 
Baffin Land to Cape Horn. When it is remembered that 
these mountains rise out of the sea itself, not from an ele- 
vated plateau as in the case of the Green Mountains and 
the White Mountains (Mt. Washington about 6300 feet in 
altitude), one may well be prepared to understand the fact 
that in all eastern America there is no scenery that even 
approaches in scale and ruggedness the Torngats of the 
Labrador. 

At its southern end the range gradually assumes the tamer 
profiles of a broken plateau. About fifty miles southeast of 
Hebron, the Moravian mission station, the scenery once more 
becomes specially impressive, but a wholly new element 
appears in the landscape forms. Again we meet with a 
boldness of relief extraordinary for eastern America, with 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 103 

heights above sea-level of from 2500 to 3500 feet for moun- 
tains starting up out of the depths of the Atlantic. This 
second mountain-group covers about 300 square miles. It is 
called by the Eskimo the "Kaumajet" or Shining Moun- 
tain, a name forming the exact equivalent of the Hindoo 
"Himalaya," and recalling the considerable list of names of 
peaks, as Mt. Blanc, the White Mountains, Mauna Kea, etc., 
covered with perennial or evanescent snow-fields. 

So far as known the Kaumajets have a unique history in 
the topography of the coast, and it is of special interest not 
only in the discussion of the wonderful mountain-forms of 
the present day, but because of an ancient record, — a 
geographic fossil long preserved beneath rocky leaves but 
now visible, for the book is open and may be read. It will 
be remembered that the Basement Complex was worn 
down to an almost-plain before the earliest known fossil- 
bearing rocks of eastern America (the Cambrian formations) 
were formed. Let us imagine this old mountain-root land- 
surface sinking deeply beneath the sea ; then imagine piled 
upon it a thickness of 3000 feet or more of mud, sand, and 
gravel, along with the lavas, flows, and ash, of sea-coast or 
marine volcanoes. Such material, since hardened to form 
well-bedded slates, sandstones, conglomerates, tuffs, and 
trap-rock, was the raw stuff from which the Kaumajets 
have been made. The whole mass, including the well- 
buried Basement Complex, was long ago hoisted above the 
sea, warped and slightly folded into great shallow troughs 
and low arches (Fig. 15) . For countless millenniums the new 
surface was given over to the patient but powerful attack 
of frost and other weathering agents and the still more 
destructive water-streams new born on that surface. The 



104 



LABBABOB 



result has been to wear away all but a comparatively small 
patch of the ancient sea-bottom sediments. Steep- walled 
gorges and canyons have thus been sunk, leaving massive 
tables, mesas, and terraced plateaus that reach down to the 




Yi G . 15. From a photograph 

The Kaumajet Mountains, looking north from Mugford Tickle. 

valley-bottoms in gigantic steps like those in the much 
younger strata of the Colorado Canyon. The result has 
been to fashion a type of mountain scenery truly wild and 
imposing and of unusual interest in possessing an architec- 
tural element quite lacking in the other high mountains of 
the Atlantic coast. This special quality is best brought out 
when a fresh fall of snow lying on the narrow ledges of the 
even-coursed cliffs makes evident the nearly horizontal 
structure. 

Examples of the Kaumajets are represented in Fig- 
ures 15 and 16, drawn from photographs. In Figure 16 
the old buried surface of the Basement Complex, revealed 
once more after its millions of years, probably tens of 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 105 

millions of years, of burial, appears above the broad un- 
stratified band at the base of the Bishop's Mitre. 

A brief note from the revised log of the schooner Brave 
suggests how little exploration of the Kaumajets has been 
accomplished: — 

"As indicated by its position, composition, and topo- 
graphic character, the island of Ogua'lik really forms the 
southern extremity of the Kaumajets. Mugford Tickle 
separates it from the mainland. It was in this narrow 
channel that our anchorage was chosen. Again we had 
occasion to mourn the slowness of our northward progress, 
for it would have been of the highest interest to devote a 
fortnight at least to the exploration of this region ; in order 
to be certain of reaching Nachvak, however, we allowed but 
two days in which to secure information concerning the 
nature of the massifs immediately surrounding the vessel. 

"The nine-hundred foot scarps of Ogua'lik would have 
been impressive among the tamer landscapes of southern 
Labrador, but they were dwarfed beside the superb walls 
of the opposing mountains only a mile or two distant. We 
had entered the tickle late at night, and in the brilliant 
starlight had discerned the huge piles looming up in solemn 
and formless grandeur. Their mystery became in part 
dispelled as a bright sun disclosed a scene in its way un- 
rivalled in Labrador. Due north in the centre of the view 
two gracefully rounded knobs, estimated by the aid of 
barometric readings halfway to their summits to be 2500 
feet in height, lay close to the verge of an almost vertical 
precipice from 1000 to 1200 feet high. Below this a series 
of lesser cliffs, separated by steeply sloping screes of 
rock-waste stepped downward to the uneven floor of a 



106 LABRADOR 

deep NE.-SW. valley. On the southeast the valley is 
bounded by a similar arrangement of cliffs and taluses. 
It ends as a great cul-de-sac, two miles in length, in a thou- 
sand-foot head-wall over which there cascades a large 
brook. 

u On landing, I found that the first and natural impres- 
sion, that this systematic array of scarps and taluses sig- 
nified a stratified structure for the massif, was justified." 

At the foot of the great cliff the light-colored gneisses 
and other crystalline schists of the Basement form broad 
ledges well scoured by the ice of the Glacial Period. Their 
gently rolling surface is considerably more uneven than the 
old " fossil" land-surface on these same crumpled, gnarled, 
and twisted rocks. The overlying, veneering strata of the 
plateaus include black slates, quartzites, and sandstones, 
apparently all sea-bottom deposits ; but probably more than 
1500 feet of the half-mile of thickness in these bedded rocks 
belongs to a volcanic formation. For unknown centuries 
this part of the Labrador must have been the home of one 
or more, perhaps many, volcanoes of large size. Millions 
of years ago they erupted enormous volumes of "ash" and 
other debris of lava. Most of the lava was shattered into 
angular fragments, coarse and fine, by the violence of ex- 
plosion. In the resulting deposits one can find abundant 
and very perfect " bombs" with the rounded shapes and 
cracked surfaces of lava masses freezing as they spun through 
the air from the mouth of Nature's cannon. Other thick 
sheets of solid lava represent the quiet flows that signify 
yet greater power in the eruptive force. 

So far only the most cursory examination has been given 
this important rock-section. No organic fossils have been 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 107 

found in any part of the series of beds. Geologists cannot 
say, therefore, just what is the age of these rocks relatively 
to the other formations of the world. It is only known that 
here, as in similar rock-groups in western and southwestern 
Labrador, the stratified beds are extremely old in a geologi- 
cal sense, dating in all probability from a time near the 
beginning of the so-called Paleozoic Period. An incon- 
ceivable time has elapsed since these lost volcanoes were 
active ; inconceivable time had elapsed between the build- 
ing of the Archean mountains and the bursting forth of the 
lavas. Though the exact number of millenniums engaged 
in those events cannot be told, the discovery of organic 
remains in the sea-bottom sediments can yet give science 
an idea as to the relative place of the events in the earth's 
history. Such a search for fossils, the closer description of 
the rock-formations, the mapping of the region, and the 
contemplation and explanation of the marvellous scenery 
of the Kaumajets offer an exploring party enjoyable work 
for more than one busy season. It is doubtful if a more 
promising region for research in Nature's wonders can be 
found elsewhere on the Labrador. 

In the northward journey from Mugford Tickle, the 
vessel will pass close under the sheer two-thousand foot 
cliff of Cape Mugford. Nowhere is the " geographic fossil" 
of the Kaumajets better displayed. Even in the pho- 
tograph one can see the exceeding contrast of colour and 
composition in the Basement Complex and in the bedded 
rocks above. It is hard to imagine a more spectacular 
exposure of such a surface as that limiting the Complex. 
Let the visitor to the Kaumajets remember that the "al- 
most-plain" has an antiquity so vast that, in comparison 



108 LABBAJDOB 

with it, the Alps of Europe, the Andes of South America, 
our own Rocky Mountains, the Colorado Canyon, the bound- 
less plain of the Mississippi Valley, are all but creatures of a 
day. He will then not only enjoy the wild picturesqueness 
of these masterpieces of Nature's masonry, but hold in 
special reverence their hoary record of an ancient world. 



Fig. 16. From a photograph 

Sea-coast view of the "Bishop's Mitre" (left) and "Brave Mountain" 

(right). 

Again the scene changes. "Numerous waterfalls and 
extensive banks of snow lent welcome relief to the dark 
cliffs, the black recesses of the great sea-chasms, and the 
savage gorge-like inlets that opened one after another as our 
schooner slowly forged through the Hide' around the cape. 
Fine as this scenery was, still greater magnificence awaited 
us as we came face to face with the Bishop's Mitre (Fig. 16). 
Seen from the northeast, the Mitre, estimated to be about 
3500 feet in height, exhibits a symmetry which is most re- 
markable in view of the fact that the existing profiles are 
everywhere the result of weathering and wasting. The 
two peaked summits are separated by a sharp notch about 
500 feet in depth — the uppermost part of a long ravine 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 109 

cleaving the mountain to its base at the shore two miles 
from the notch. Occupying the bottom of the ravine an 
uninterrupted snowbank still marked, in the month of 
August, the line of symmetry of the whole mountain. From 
either peak of the Mitre a rugged razor-back ridge descends, 
each gradually diverging from the other across the widening 
intervening trench. With essentially similar profiles, the 
two spurs further match as each terminates at an elevation 
of about a thousand feet in a bold rock-tower. Each sen- 
tinel tower rises some 800 feet above the ridge-crest, from 
which there is a sudden slope of the full 1800 feet into the 
yea. The light gray colour of the Basement, in contrast 
with the black of the cyclopean masonry above, adds to the 
impression won from the beautiful symmetry that the whole 
structure is the work of giants with the brains of men. No 
more interesting mountain occurs on the whole coast." 

Our knowledge concerning the Torngat Range or the 
Kaumajets is imperfect; still less is known of the third of 
the high places on the Labrador — the Kiglapait. Fif- 
teen miles north of Port Manvers and some fifty miles south 
of the southern limit of the Kaumajet group, the Kiglapait 
lifts its rocky head and giant vertebrae out of the sea like 
the massive skeleton of some monster reptile left stranded 
on the shore. Practically all the information to be had 
on the real nature of the range is embodied in two para- 
graphs of the report of the Brave expedition: "The name 
of this mountain-group is an Eskimo word meaning 'The 
Great Sierra' and refers to the very ragged sky-line and 
general outlines. The axis of the range runs due east and 
west parallel to the coast-line, which here has an exceptional 
trend. The sierra is not more than thirty miles in length, 



110 LABRADOR 

but, on account of its conspicuous position on the shore, is 
strikingly picturesque. Ten different summits from 2500 
to 4000 feet in height could be counted from the schooner. 
No one of these, so far as the writer has been able to de- 
termine from missionaries, fishermen, or from the literature, 
has as yet received a name. Here, as in the higher moun- 
tains of the north, there is abundant opportunity for sys- 
tematic field-work on the part of such an organization as the 
Appalachian Club. 

" We had hoped to spend some days, if not weeks, in the 
study of these interesting mountains, but the lateness of the 
season forbade our dropping anchor within reach of the noble 
range. Judging again simply from the peculiarly dark 
colour of the bare rock-surfaces, it seems probable that the 
gabbro seen at Port Manvers makes up most of the Kigla- 
pait, which will thus represent the Coolin type of gabbro 
mountains in Scotland." 

The 2700-foot Mt. Thoresby at Port Manvers is another 
dark-coloured mass of the gabbro, which continues to a point 
at least twelve miles south of Nain. 

Thence southward the rugged, island-girt plateau of the 
Basement Complex extends all the 350 miles to Belle Isle 
Strait. Throughout that distance the hills and islands on 
the shore range from 200 to 1200 feet in height, with an 
average altitude above sea of about 500 feet. A typical 
view epitomizing the topography may be had from the 
summits near Hopedale. One's first impression from 
the view is that of an extremely broken character in 
the relief. The endless succession of hills and valleys, is- 
lands and bays, would seem to proclaim that on no account 
must this land be called a plateau. And yet no designa- 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 111 

tion more helpful in giving one an accurate and significant 
idea of the landscape can be applied. From the deck of 
schooner or steamer coursing several miles offshore, the 
hundred visible hills of the coast-belt are seen to accord so 
closely in elevation that the general sky-line is notably flat. 
The flatness would scarcely be more pronounced if some 
miraculous shovel were to fill in the valleys. Such magic 
filling would give a land-surface quite similar to that which 
explorers have found sweeping westward over the wide 
interior of Labrador and beyond to Lake Winnipeg. It is 
the last " almost-plain " to which the Archean mountain- 
system has been reduced by the wasting of the ages. Since 
the plain was formed, it has been bodily elevated some hun- 
dreds of feet, and especially on its edges, as on this southern 
half of the Labrador, new valleys have been etched out by 
weather and running water. So numerous are these valleys 
that the relief along the coast is wonderfully diversified, 
but it belongs none the less to an old-mountain plateau 
cut in intaglio. 

Before we take the next step in declaring the develop- 
ment of scenery on the Labrador, it is well to review the 
ground over which we have come. The limited explora- 
tion of the Labrador has led to the recognition of several 
distinct units in its topography, all to be related directly 
or indirectly to an ancient mountain-system represented 
to-day in the much-worn Basement Complex. The south- 
ern half of the coast represents a part of the greatest single 
element in the relief of British North America — the 
Archean plateau. The Torn gat Range of the extreme 
north forms the "Alps" of eastern America, — ■ true moun- 
tains, as shown not only in the folded and crumpled struc- 



112 LABRADOR 

>ture of their rock-bands, but as well in the conspicuous 
heights of the individual peaks. The strength of this 
mountainous relief is principally due to the deep incision 
of stream-made valleys in a portion of the Basement Com- 
plex locally, and in a geological sense recently, uplifted 
far above the general level of the Archean plain. So far as 
known, the Torngats thus owe their origin to the selfsame 
processes that have shaped the low but much broken 
plateau of the south. 

A third element in the scenery is found in the high gabbro 
ranges of Nain, Port Manvers, and the Kiglapait. These 
fine mountains may similarly have undergone recent uplift ; 
or, on the other hand, they may be still high because the 
gabbro is tougher than the surrounding rocks and from the 
Archean time to the present has been more stubborn than 
they in resisting the destructive activity of the weather. 
It must be left to future investigation to decide as to which 
alternative is to be preferred. Both may be true. 

Finally, the Kaumajet mountain-group, built on the 
gently undulating floor of the Complex, and showing a 
special composition and history, makes the fourth member 
in our scenic divisions. The stratified rocks forming the 
terraced slopes of the Kaumajets are the youngest solid- 
rock formations yet discovered on the northeast coast of 
the peninsula. No solid formation, with certainty repre- 
senting any of the lifetime of the earth from the earliest 
Paleozoic time to the present, has been found. 

In Labrador the net result of the geological activities of 
this incomprehensible aeon appears to have been to demol- 
ish rather than to construct, to wear away old rock-terranee 
rather than to build new ones into the framework of this 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 113 

part of the continent. During that time, to the westward 
and southward, the sea-bottoms of geological epochs 
accumulated muds, sands, and gravels aggregating many 
miles in thickness — the rock-materials that now compose 
the bulk of the emerged continent of North America. 
During that time, many volcanoes near the Atlantic, many 
others on the Pacific seaboard, were born, lived active days, 
and died, to leave more than a hundred thousand cubic 
miles of lava on plains and broken mountain-land. Dur- 
ing that time, the Appalachian mountain-system, stretch- 
ing from Newfoundland to Alabama, was hoisted to lofty 
heights again and again ; each great uplift was followed by 
secular wasting that reduced the ranges to flat or rolling 
plains broken only by remnant hills or low peaks. During 
that time the Rocky Mountain region of the west was the 
scene of repeated mountain-building with a similar wastage 
of its ranges. During that time, the visible rocks under- 
lying the five million square miles of plain country between 
the Rockies and the Appalachians and extending from the 
Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico, were deposited on the bottom 
of America's Interior Sea at a rate doubtless no more rapid 
than is now accomplished on the bed of the Atlantic. And 
yet, for all that immense interval in geological history, no 
bed-rocks have yet been discovered on the Labrador to tell 
us of the earth's constructive activities in the region. Such 
formations may be found in the future, but it is already 
known that they cannot occupy large areas in the coastal 
belt. The layered rocks of the Kaumajets once covered 
much more territory than now; it may well be believed 
that, formerly, other extended mantles of bedded rock 
in like manner veneered the Basement Complex. But in 



114 LABRADOR 

no case can any one of these mantles furnish other than 
small patches on the old Basement. For millions of years 
the Labrador has been above the sea and has suffered the 
steady ; patient onslaught of frost and rain and the delving 
of brooks and rivers — forces that, with the cumulative 
power of the ages, have laid bare, throughout the Labrador, 
the foundation of the world. 

Thus it has come about that the most ancient of forma- 
tions now lies in contact with the youngest that go to make 
up the geological record, the loose deposits of the geological 
"yesterday" and " to-day." The "yesterday" is the Gla- 
cial Period; the "to-day" is the post-Glacial "Recent" 
Period. What remains of our brief account of Labrador's 
scenic evolution has to do with these short but exceedingly 
important epochs. 

At the beginning of the Glacial Period the Labrador Pen- 
insula had essentially the main topographic features of the 
present time . Through the working of climatic causes whose 
relative efficiency is in lively discussion among geologists, 
a regional ice-cap many times greater than the well-known 
ice-field of Greenland gradually accumulated in north- 
eastern America. What seems to have been the region of 
greatest thickening in the ice-sheet was located on the height 
of land between James Bay and the St. Lawrence River. 
Thence the ice slowly flowed in all directions — to north, 
east, south, and west — outward into the Atlantic off the 
Labrador, the maritime provinces and New England, 
ploughing the sea-floor as it moved ; outward into Hudson 
Strait and across Hudson Bay, apparently filling that broad 
basin completely ; outward across the Great Lakes, as far 
as the belt of moraines stretching from New York City 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 115 

across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and so on 
to the plains of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Northwest 
Territories of Canada. The total area of this " Labrador" 
or "Laurentian" ice-cap was over two millions of square 
miles. In the central part its thickness grew to be at 
least six thousand feet. There is evidence to show that even 
Mt. Washington (6288 feet in altitude), together with all 
other peaks of New England, was covered by the flooding 
ice. 

Investigation much less thorough than has been given to 
the Labrador glacier has suggested that similar, independent 
ice-caps were formed on the heights of Newfoundland and 
on the plateau northwest of Hudson Bay (the "Keewatin" 
Glacier), each having centrifugal flow. 

The causes for the disappearance of the ice-sheets are 
as stimulating to debate among glacialists as the conditions 
that led to the growth of the glaciers. Fortunately for 
a scenographic account of the Labrador, these intricate 
theoretical questions need not detain us ; suffice it only to 
note the fact that, after a period of prolonged activity, the 
ice gradually melted away. Not an acre of the old ice has 
been found on the mainland of North America. It is 
possible that the Grinnell Glacier, the relatively diminutive 
ice-cap of southern Baffin Land (Meta Incognita), repre- 
sents a still lingering portion of the mightier glacial flood, 
but so little is known of the Grinnell that a former connec- 
tion of the existing and the vanished ice-sheet cannot be 
asserted. On the contrary, it may be that the reported 
twelve hundred square miles of ice on the Meta Incognita 
belong to another independent centre of ice-accumulation. 
The solution to this problem and the interest which always 



116 LABRADOR 

attaches to a regional glacier will surely and amply repay 
the explorer who heads his steamer for Frobisher Bay. 
The Grinnell Glacier lies only a long half-day's journey 
by steamer from Cape Chidley ; in a sense it is at the very 
door of civilization, yet it is far less known than the ice of 
northern Greenland or the distant glaciers of Alaska. 

Whether or not the north land bears any remnant of the 
ice which once overwhelmed Labrador, the recency of the 
glacial retreat from the peninsula is most strikingly evident. 
This is especially true on the northeast coast, where the gla- 
cialist, no less than the worker in bed-rock, is blessed with 
that negative virtue of the earth's surface, the absence of a 
forest-cover. He who runs may read the glacial records 
from one end of the coastal belt to the other. 

To gain a vital idea of ice-work even on the Greenland 
scale or the Antarctic scale, one needs not the training of a 
professional glacialist. A first approach to the understand- 
ing of glaciers may be profitably made in the recognition 
of their analogy with rivers. Upstream, a river scours its 
channel, batters, grooves, and wears away the solid rock, 
so deepening its bed and in time excavating a valley of a 
size appropriate to the stream. In its lower course on 
flood-plain or delta, the river lays down the rock-fragments 
worn out of the rocky channel. Throughout the length 
of the river, increasingly, this debris, in the form of gravel, 
sand, or mud, is moving deltawards. A water-stream has 
thus three main functions — to scour, to carry the scoured 
rubbish down the valley, and then to deposit that same 
rubbish in lake or sea or other basin, where the stream's 
velocity is finally checked. In like manner the gliding ice- 
stream, whether flanked by valley-walls or blanketing 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 



Cape Chid ley 




250 ' Naehvak Bay 

260 'Hebron 
„ - 26S Cape Mugford 

. 270 'Cutthroat Tickle 
28S Port Man vers 

2 90 ' Ford Harbour 
U)<K- >r - .340' Quirk T.ckle 

Y390 Hope dale 
355 A, Hi k Bay 

7 345' Pomiadluk Point 

.265 'ice Tickle 
Hamilton Inlet 
West Bay 

J260)6ready 

1300) Domino Harbour 

1325-4-0) Venison Tickle 

^365 S? Francis Harbour 



MO* Kirpon Harbour 
Fortune Bay 

..505 C. Rouge Harbour 



Greenspond 



J 575) S! Johr 



Fig. 17. 

Map showing by arrows the directions in which the ice of the Glacial Period moved. 
Numbers indicate in feet the amount of uplift since Glacial times. Scale, 200 miles 
to 1 inch. 



118 LABRADOR 

half a continent, scours and grooves its rock-floor, removes 
loose rubbish, and attacks the solid rock, which slowly yet 
surely wastes under the heavy, creeping stream. In like 
manner, too, a moving ice-stream is freighted with "drift," 
the debris of the wearing floor, and, finally, that debris is 
deposited downstream where the glacier current comes to 
an end. Alluvium is the " drift" material of the river's 
load; glacial " drift" is the alluvium of an ice-stream. 
The alluvial deposits of the river in terrace, flood-plain, or 
delta are the "moraines" of the glacier. 

If a well-established, mature river should, through a 
change of climate, become dried up or greatly shrunken in 
volume, its scoured, boulder-strewn gorge, its terrace sands 
and clays and its delta would remain to tell the story of 
that river's former activity as clearly as if the rushing waters 
had never ceased to flow. Such climatic changes have 
actually occurred in various parts of the world, so that, 
even in that respect, water-streams and ice-streams hold 
their analogy. 

All of these three principal activities of glaciers are 
memorialized with wonderful clearness on the Labrador. 
However, as might be expected from the fact that the pen- 
insula was the central region of dispersal for the ice-cap, 
the main effect of glaciation on the coast has been to abrade 
the bed-rock and to carry away the loose product of the 
grinding to the ice-margin which lay far out on the bed of 
the Atlantic. The scenery, no less than the conditions 
ruling plant, animal, and human life on the coast, has been 
powerfully affected by this erosive work of the vanished 
glacier. To that phase of the glacial geology of Labrador 
the explorer's attention is inevitably turned, 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 119 

Among the first evidences to convince the observer of 
the extent, power, and recency of the glacial invasion is the 
character of the rock-ledges on all the coastal belt from 
Belle Isle to Cape Mugford. In pre-Glacial times there 
must have existed a deep soil and a heavy layer of weathered 
and decomposed rock over this entire area. The word 
"must" is none too strong if the Labrador mountains had 
wasted down after the manner of other old ranges, and 
there is every ground for believing that such was the case. 
In other words, we can find an analogy to the pre-Glacial 
range of the Labrador in, for example, the unglaciated 
southern Appalachian Mountains in which the granites 
and schists are so altered by secular weathering that the 
rock is friable and rotten for depths of hundreds of feet 
below the present surface. 

In Georgia or northern Alabama it can be proved that 
some of the rock-bands are weathering more rapidly than 
others ; over the former the blanket of disintegrated rock 
is deeper than elsewhere. So it doubtless was in Labrador. 
When the ice-cap became thick and powerful, it slowly 
scoured and planed away the ancient soil with the under- 
lying layer of rotted rock. Under the enormous weight 
of the cap a half mile or more in thickness, the ice moulded 
itself into all the depressions. As the easily removed 
blanket of decayed rock was carried northeastward out to 
the Atlantic basin, not only was the general level of the 
country lowered, but it was lowered faster where the pre- 
Glacial decay of the rocks had been most pronounced. 
The energy and duration of the glacial scouring were such, 
that apparently all of this loose material was removed, 
leaving smoothed, hummocky hills and ledges of fresh, 



120 LABRADOR 

unbroken rock to form the post-Glacial landscapes. 
Where the pre-Glacial cover of decayed rock was spe- 
cially deep, a trough or a rock-basin remained after 
the ice melted away. In this way the old valleys were 
irregularly deepened and new depressions were sunk; 
innumerable lakes and ponds were formed which to-day 
make the peninsula one of the great lake-districts of 
the world ; and the coastal belt assumed its present aspect 
of singular raggedness. The diversity of relief in southern 
Labrador is nowhere more conspicuous than along the 
shore. When the ice finally disappeared, from mainland 
and invaded sea-floor, the ocean waters entered the maze 
of scoured troughs that open seaward. The ponderous 
flood of ice was replaced by the restless sea, flooding a 
perfect labyrinth of channels, straits, broad sounds, islands, 
skerries, and headlands. 

There is evidence, too, to show that the solid, fresh rock 
itself was attacked by the overriding ice. All rock is 
intersected by more or less abundant cracks or planes of 
weakness which divide it into blocks that may be rifted 
away. Just as the quarryman uses these rifting planes to 
remove slabs of marble, granite, or schist, so the Labrador 
glacier with the wedge of the frost, with bottom friction 
and shear, plucked out and carried off great blocks from 
its firm, un weathered floor. The photograph of the 
" ice-worn surface near Aillik Bay " illustrates a single 
example of this process which had an important share 
in the glacial remodelling of the topography. In the 
view, the smooth slope on the left represents the 
heavily scoured bed of the ice-sheet as it moved sea- 
ward from right to left. The pond fills a small rock- 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 121 

basin produced by the glacial plucking away of many 
blocks of the fresh rock (gneiss) frozen into the ice, and so 
lifted and freighted off by the moving glacier. In the face 
of the low cliff can be discerned the planes of rifting and 
the outlines of several blocks that were in the very act of 
being plucked away as the ice disappeared from the country. 
It is an instructive case of natural quarrying. Ten thou- 
sand other examples on the coast would show quite as 
clearly that a glacier works with crowbar and crane as 
well as with gouge and chisel. Using all its powers, the 
ice-cap strongly modified the details of relief on the plateau 
of southern Labrador. 

In so reaching a principal conclusion from the glacial 
studies, let it not be forgotten that normal stream-cutting 
in pre-Glacial times produced the grand features of the 
sculpture. 

The energy of glacial attack is manifested not alone in the 
remodelling of plateau and valley ; its power leaves enduring 
records on the single ledge of rock. Observations on the 
living glaciers of the world show that they scour their beds 
not so much by the direct friction of ice against ledge as 
by the dragging of frozen-in boulders over the bed-rock. 
The pressure so applied is truly enormous. Deep grooves 
or shallower "striaB" running in the direction of ice-flow 
are cut in the solid rock by such "graving-tools." Lime- 
stone, slate, trap, granite, or schist may be thus marked by 
scratches, furrows, or channels from a fraction of an inch to 
a foot or more in depth. They are not continuous mark- 
ings, but occur only where the wearing boulder has been 
pressed with irresistible might against the bare rock. 
Shallow and deep striations of the sort are to be found on 



122 LABBADOB 

all the length of the Labrador ; as elsewhere, they may be 
used to determine the directions in which the massive ice- 
cap flowed. Until the year 1900 striae were reported from 
not more than five localities on the coast. In that yeai 
the list was so far enlarged that it became possible to prove 
a seaward flow for the ice throughout the 750 miles of the 
shore. In Figure 17 arrows have been drawn to show the 
directions of this movement of the ice. 

Besides the scouring and quarrying, the Labrador ice- 
cap, like all other glaciers, carried out a programme of con- 
structive work. In southern and north-central Canada 
and in the northern United States, this activity furnishes 
for the glacial story a second chapter of even more positive 
importance than the chapter so briefly sketched for the 
Labrador. In northeastern Canada, as we have seen, the 
ice-sheet spent its energies chiefly in transporting to out- 
lying regions the abundant rock-rubbish won from the 
plateau in its polishing and latest sculpturing. That same 
drift was laid down in a broad zone of moraines and water- 
washed deposits of sand, gravel, and clay not far from the 
edge of the ice-cap. The rich farms of southern Ontario, 
southern Michigan, of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and other 
northern States of the Union are underlain by the broken 
and pulverized material that once composed the pre- 
Glacial cover of decayed rock in the region to the north 
and northeast. Through the glacial invasion those south- 
ern tracts have gained in the raw material of good soils 
at the expense of northern Michigan and Ontario, of Quebec 
and southeastern Labrador. 

With seemingly greater thoroughness the mantle of soil 
and disintegrated rock has been removed from the coastal 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 123 

belt of northeastern Labrador. The resulting moraines 
and other loose deposits cannot be seen in anything like 
their full volume, for they are almost entirely buried 
beneath the waters of the North Atlantic. Only here and 
there within the coastal belt itself did some lingering, 
local ice-tongue build a small moraine to represent the 
immense accumulations that must have resulted from 
the strong glaciation of the coast. One such moraine has 
been described as a unique discovery during the voyage 
of the Brave. It was noted on the mainland opposite 
Copper Island near Seal Island Harbour. 

For the rest of the coast, so far as known, the glacial 
deposits consist either of very small patches of clay carrying 
boulders or of single boulders scattered over the bed-rock 
surface. All told, they form but a comparatively insig- 
nificant mass of loose material left irregularly distributed 
over the glacier-floor when the ice finally melted away. 
As the ice-sheet shrunk, the boulders gradually and quietly 
sank to their present resting-places. Many of the larger 
ones were delicately poised on their corners and now form 
" rocking-stones " which may be easily set swinging from 
side to side with the hand. 

But a picture of the Labrador in glacial times would be 
far from complete unless the imagination reconstruct the 
physical geography of the lofty northern mountain-ranges 
during that period. As far back as 1860 an American geol- 
ogist named Lieber noted on the mainland south of Cape 
Chidley "wild volcanic-looking mountains, . . . whose 
craggy peaks have evidently never been ground down by 
land-ice into domes and rounded tops." Dr. Robert 
Bell, after a brief visit to the Torngats, said of them: 



124 LABRADOR 

"■The mountains around Nachvak are steep, rough- 
sided, peaked, and serrated, and have no appearance of 
having been glaciated, excepting close to the sea-level. 
The rocks are softened, eroded, and deeply decayed. . . . 
Throughout the drift period, the top of the coast-range of 
the Labrador stood above the ice and was not glaciated, 
especially in the high northern part." An exploration more 
prolonged than any permitted to either of the two geologists 
mentioned was carried on by the writer in 1900, and his 
observations entirely corroborate their conclusion. 

In the northern Torngat Mountains, all signs of general 
glaciation cease at the level of about 2000 feet above the 
sea. Above that level, the ledges are thoroughly shattered 
into angular fragments by the frost, and weathered to a 
deep brown colour strikingly different from the gray tints 
of the rounded ledges and boulders which have been 
scoured by the ice lower down the slope. The decompo- 
sition of the rock is doubtless something like that which 
affected all the ledges of the Labrador in pre-Glacial 
time. The 2000-foot contour also marks the upper limit 
at which " erratic" boulders, namely, those which have 
been surely carried from their parent ledges by ice, can 
be found. 

Thus in the Nachvak region the ice-sheet at its maximum 
during the Glacial Period was not more than one-third as 
thick as in southeastern Labrador, and filled these northern 
valleys to a height of about 2000 feet above the present 
level of the sea, but no higher. The ice of the local Nachvak 
Glacier was in largest part derived from the main interior 
ice-cap which flowed through a deep transverse cleft in 
the Torngat Range. Branch glaciers growing in the moun- 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 125 

tains themselves swelled the volume of that trunk stream 
of ice. For fifty miles the latter glacier, like a broad, deep 
river, wound its way beneath the grand cliffs of the Torn- 
gats until it debouched in the open Atlantic. So it 
was with many other cross-valleys of the range; the 
Torngats stood like a lofty, turreted wall which the ice- 




Fig. 18. 

Section across the south arm of Nachvak Fiord. Height (above sea-level) 
and depths (below sea-level) in feet. 

cap, thick as it was, could not surmount, but could only 
partially conquer by the easy routes of the passes. In 
all probability the tops of the Kaumajets and of the 
Kiglapait Mountains likewise stood well above the sur- 
face of the ice which must perforce flow round them in its 
journey to the sea. 

The glacial occupation of the Torngat valleys led to ex- 
ceptionally important changes in their pre-Glacial form, 
and to that modification we owe some principal elements 
in the impressive landscapes of the long inlets. These 



126 



labbAdou 



O 

i- 

P 
o 






3i?Ess¥OYAK^ u ^ e ton § ues °f i° e ^ even more notice 

34» Qnl^r tliQn +V»o main ice~CaD 



37 



15 



79 



16 



85 



ably than the main ice-cap, have 
scoured and quarried away the bed- 
rock. One result has been to widen 
and flatten the valley-floors, thereby 
steepening up the side slopes that be- 
longed to the normal river-cut canyons 
of pre-Glacial days. Over the cliffs 
many fine waterfalls are tumbling from 
side-valleys mouthing many hundreds 
of feet above the sea-water of the in- 
lets. As usual, too, the rocks of the 
glacier-beds showed different powers of 
resistance to the pluck-and-scour of the 
ice and long, deep rock-basins were 
ploughed out in the bottoms that once 
possessed the uniform, smooth seaward 
slope of river-made valleys. (See Figs. 
18 and 19.) Thus, excavation by the 
great local glaciers has been chiefly re- 
sponsible for the peculiar and impressive 
scenic quality of the fiords occurring be- 
tween Cape Mugford and Cape Chidley. 
A short but interesting chapter re- 
mains to complete the scenic history of 
the Labrador. Ice-cap and valley 
glaciers melted away and left the land 
sculptured into essentially its present 
form ; left hill and valley, scoured rock, 
hollowed basins, ponded waters, and 
countless rushing rapids and quiet reaches 
in the streams which were new-born on 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 127 

the old glacial floors. At the close of the Ice Period, how- 
ever, the whole of the Labrador stood some hundreds of feet 
lower than it now stands with respect to the level of the sea. 
During the thousands of years which have since elapsed, 
the land has been slowly upheaved to that amount. All 
along the existing shore an irregular belt of land so emerged, 
and now bears with marvellous distinctness the traces of wave- 
action far above the present level of the Atlantic. Probably 
nowhere in the world are there more beautifully preserved 
relics of ancient shores. The absence of forest that might 
cover the records and the recency of the uplift contribute 
to the perfection of the display. We must add thereto 
the fact that it is precisely in just such a coastal region, 
exposed, as it was, to the full force of the ocean's swell 
and the gales of a North Atlantic, that we should expect 
old shore-lines to be well marked. With truly dramatic 
force Nature has fulfilled the expectation and so afforded 
every observer on the Labrador a never failing source of 
interest and instruction. 

Again let it be called to mind that the study of any geo- 
logical fact in Labrador has a twofold significance. Many 
a stage in the physical evolution of the peninsula, or many 
a striking element in the landscape or underground struc- 
ture, is worthy of wonder and interpretation for its own 
sake — yet still more worthy if it be viewed as a sample 
of the structure, scenery, or stage of development that 
belongs to the earth's crust as a whole. Much of the rugged 
beauty and charm of colour of the Labrador shore are due 
to the thorough washing, wearing, and fretting of the rocky 
hills as they emerged from beneath Atlantic waters in recent 
times. The beauty and charm gain in meaning and power 



128 LABRADOR 

if the truth be recognized that all about the North Atlantic 
the same upward movement of the land has taken place. 
The shores of Maine, Quebec, Scotland, Scandinavia, and 
Finland are regions favoured by those who love the form 
and colour contrasts of the many-tinted sea with the massive, 
bold, or savage rocks still bearing marks of a late submerg- 
ence. On a larger scale and, in general, with much greater 
vividness than elsewhere in North America at least, the 
explanation of this peculiar scenery can be told and illus- 
trated on the Labrador, where, therefore, the beauty of 
such a shore, becoming a type of all, can be at once best 
appreciated and understood. 

A visit to the newest dry land of Labrador has yet greater 
value in giving one faith in the reality of the giant geo- 
logical forces. Throughout a human lifetime the earth 
seems stable; the human records of a thousand years 
seem to establish the same belief. It needs some such 
object-lesson as the emerged coastal zone of Labrador to 
show us finally that those " first impressions" are wrong, — 
that the Greek philosophers were right, though they knew 
not the name of geology, in claiming for the world an "eter- 
nal flux of things." The lesson speaks tellingly of the real 
instability of the sea-level, of massive, regional uplifts of 
the land, and of the growth of continents. On other 
grounds, for example, it is believed that the long coastal 
plain underlying the Atlantic States from New Jersey 
to Florida was once part of the bed of the ocean, but the 
belief founded on local discoveries at last reaches its full 
strength and overlaps actual knowledge when it can be 
shown beyond doubt or cavil that the sea-bottom elsewhere 
has been warped up to form new land. With unmistakable 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 129 

directness and with lavish proofs this ground principle of 
geology is illustrated on the Labrador. 

The memorials of post-Glacial uplift are as diverse as 
the kinds of shore-line form which the waves of to-day are 
impressing on the hard rocks of the coast. Boulder beaches, 
gravel beaches and terraces, plains and pointed spits of wave- 
laid sand, sea-cliffs, splendid sea-caves and long chasms, 
even the dunes of sand blown up on these prehistoric shores, 
remain to tell us of just such activities as wind and wave dis- 
play on the present shore, the lowest of all those which the 
Atlantic has stormed and battered since the Glacial Period. 

Ocean waves are like rivers and glaciers in their ways of 
working. They destroy or erode bed-rock ; they transport 
the eroded debris ; they deposit their freight of rubbish 
where the force of wave- and wind-driven current is lowered. 
Thus, in a sense, the gnawed and riven sea-cliffs correspond 
to the scoured glacier-bed or washed, abraded floor of the 
river-canyon ; the beaches and spits, the bedded sand and 
mud of the sea-bottom correspond to moraines and to the 
deltas and alluvial plains of rivers. As the outer coastal 
belt of the Labrador slowly, with the deliberation of mil- 
lenniums, and urged by the mysterious, colossal, internal 
energy of a planet, rose out of the sea, the ocean-billows 
rolled in upon the changing shores, destroying where they 
could, constructing where they must. The visible signs of 
the submergence belong, therefore, to two classes of land- 
scape forms which give a real fascination to this most recent 
geology on the coast. 

The most widespread evidence of the destruction wrought 
by the waves on the old shore-lines can be found at almost 
any landing-place between St. John's and Cape Chidley. 



130 LABRADOR 

It has been said that the ice-cap left but little of its drift 
on the surface of the Labrador plateau. The same state- 
ment is true of the contemporaneous glacial action on New- 
foundland. Yet in both lands enough "drifted" boulders 
were dropped on the smoothed and scoured bed-rock so 
that the whole floor of the glacier was pretty thickly 
peppered over with these products of ice-erosion. Noth- 
ing can be more evident on the low, bare, treeless hillsides 
facing the open Atlantic on Newfoundland or the Labrador 
than the absence of such boulders. Below the level of 
500 feet above sea on the eastern shore of the island, and 
below the 250-foot contour on the Labrador, the vast ma- 
jority of the boulders have been swept from the slopes where 
the ice dropped them. Only a few of the very largest, too 
ponderous to be moved even by the superb onslaught of 
the North Atlantic "seas," remain in or near their former 
positions . The rest are gone to the many boulder and gravel 
beaches left stranded, as it were, in the valleys of the 
emerging land, or at the present moment are being ground 
in the mill of the surf whither they have been dragged dur- 
ing the uplift. Hundreds of square miles of ice- worn hills 
of naked rock have been thus washed clean of glacial 
debris. Compare the two views of Bear Island. 

With special intensity those cleared surfaces are feeling 
Nature's ceaseless attack. Exposed as they are to the open 
sky in a rigorous climate, the rocks of the wave-washed 
zone are being rent and shattered by the frost, which uses 
the rain-water of the present, has used the rains and the 
spray fling of former times, to split the rocks. Here and 
there the surface is clasped in the close embrace of many- 
hued lichens or covered by thicker growths of almost 




Glacial Boulders on a Ridge near Ice Tickle Harbour 




Bear Island, Wave-washed and then Uplifted 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 131 

equally hardy mosses, but, in the main, the ledges seem as 
bare of vegetation as if the sea had retreated from them 
only yesterday. 

The bed-rocks of the Labrador are old-mountain rocks, 
toughened in the early days when they lay in the heart of 
the mountain-chain. They are giving pause to the greedy, 
unending assault of the ocean wave, which is rinding 
on the present shore, as it found on the higher ones, 
that, while glacial boulders are playthings, the bed-rock 
offers work, — grim, arduous work that must continue 
many, many thousands of years before the stubborn head- 
lands will yield to the onset. For this double reason, 
first, the shortness of the time during which the emergence 
took place, and, secondly, the sturdy resistance of the solid 
rock to wave-battering, the newly emerged land bears 
relatively few strong cliffs or other scenic forms cut by the 
waves in the living rock. 

Nevertheless, where favourably situated weak bands oc- 
curred in the formations of the old shores, the waves in- 
fallibly sought them out and at many points excavated 
strange caves and long, deep chasms along such seams of 
softer material. To-day, hundreds of feet above the sea, 
there may be seen these trenches floored with the tough 
boulders with which the breakers used to cannonade the 
coast. As one explores the silent, dark recesses, they seem 
haunted by unnumbered ghosts of the seas that once tore 
through the narrow gates and roared destruction to the 
walls of the ever deepening chasms. 

The finest of these great clefts in the hillsides are gener- 
ally located on the dikes of trap-rock that transect the 
schists or granites of the Basement Complex. As a rule, 



132 LABRADOR 

the trap is more resistant to ordinary weathering and decay 
than the formation it cuts, but is less resistant than they to 
the more mechanical destruction of the sea-wave ; thus a 
trap-ridge may be seen to terminate in a sea-chasm at the 
point where the rock has been under the mastering control 
of the pounding breakers. An easily visited example, one 
of relative antiquity as it lies close to the highest of the old 
shore-lines, is situated on a ridge a half mile northwest of 
Hopedale Mission House, at an elevation of 325 feet above 
the sea. This chasm, three hundred yards in length, faith- 
fully follows the line of a trap-dike crossing the ridge. An- 
other picturesque example is nearly as long, with an average 
width of twenty feet and vertical depth of seventy-five feet ; 
it occurs on Long Island at American Tickle. Its excava- 
tion has been long under way, beginning when the land stood 
scores of feet lower than at present. The boiling waves 
still run nearly to the head of the chasm. 

Before the writer lies a photograph which shows the base 
of a torn and ragged sea-cliff overlooking a fine beach about 
200 feet above the present sea-level. The boulders of the 
beach represent the wave-worn, rounded debris of the cliff. 
In the background is the old, uneven sea-bottom, now cov- 
ered with a slight vegetation and with moss-encircled lake- 
lets filling glaciated rock-basins. The scene before the 
photographer was wild and desolate, yet cheered and made 
beautiful by the wonderful blues of sea and sky and the 
no less exquisite purples of the atmosphere. Without the 
colour, the views might have been depressing ; with it, there 
was much attractiveness in this spectacle of a primitive 
world restored from the sea. 

The fact of the massive crustal upheaval of the Labrador 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 133 

in recent times is still more forcibly emphasized by the 
thousands of boulder-beaches and other marine accumula- 
tions on the emerged land. The glacial drift and the an- 
gular fragments of rock torn from cliff and chasm were 
sorted, grouped, and graded by the waves many centuries 
ago, yet the resulting beaches very often look as if they 
had just been formed. Almost the only change that has 
affected their appearance since the last mad fling of the 
surf was dried upon them, is the growth of a thin and scat- 
tered coat of lichens upon the boulders. Next to a view 
of the reality no better proof of the remarkable preservation 
of the beaches or illustration of their perfect exposure can 
be had than the testimony of the camera. The photo- 
graphs of the raised beaches are examples, and not ex- 
ceptional ones at that, of the hundreds of beaches visited 
by the members of the Brave expedition in one season. 
Some of the most interesting exhibitions of beaches dis- 
covered at that time occur at Sloop Harbour (their eleva- 
tions above sea being 115, 140, 160, and 215 feet), at Aillik 
Bay, Hopedale, Pomiadluk Point (here measured eleva- 
tions of 55, 65, 230, 250, 315, 320, and 335 feet), and at 
Port Manvers. 

In some of the beaches Packard has found the shells and 
skeletons of the animals which thronged the sea as the 
beaches formed. He records the discovery of a whale's 
skeleton in marine clay fifty feet above the present high- 
water mark. The captain of the Brave reported, too, that 
he had found whalebones in a beach estimated to be one 
hundred feet above the same level. Packard states that 
these fossil remains are identical in character with the hard 
parts of species now living in the Arctic and North Atlantic. 



134 LABRADOR 

Where the glacial deposits had been unusually thick, still 
bulkier accumulations of sand and gravel were built by 
the waves in sheltered places. In the lee of many an island 
between Ford Harbour and Nain is an elevated spit which 
tails off from the island in beautifully even slopes from a 
few hundred feet to more than a mile in length. Often such 
a spit forms a continuous bar from one island to another. 
Other plateau-like sand deposits, as at Port Manvers, tie 
large islands to the mainland, or, in a unique case, underlie 
a true coastal plain of large size, as north of Cape Porcupine. 
The loose sands and clay of this plain have given foothold to 
a relatively extensive growth of scrub timber which, else- 
where, on the well-washed hills, finds little encouragement. 
Indeed, there is generally not enough soil on the outer shore 
to permit of the cultivation of vegetables ; at some of the 
small ports in eastern Newfoundland, soil for the purpose has 
actually been imported in the form of ballast from England. 
So scarce is either soil or loose material of any kind that a 
settlement on the Labrador has almost invariably had to 
seek a raised beach, often composed simply of large boulders, 
as the only available site for the graveyard. 

As an accurate, scientific description of scenery is neces- 
sarily founded on geology, so geological principles have 
often been evolved or at least brought into clearer light by 
the impressionistic influence of landscape. The extraordi- 
nary proofs of the recent upheaval of the Labrador cannot 
but force upon the visitor to the coast the question as to 
whether the elevating process still continues. The answer 
seems to be in the affirmative. "The almost universal 
belief of the old settlers on these shores is that in no other 
way can the changes in depth at familiar localities be ex- 




Raised Gravel Beach at West Bay, South Side of Entrance to Hamilton 

Inlet 




Half-tide View of the Shore at Ford Harbour 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 135 

plained. With no theory to support or refute, many 
reputable observers among the fishing population state that 
they have time and again noted, during periods of from thirty 
to sixty years, cases where rock-ledges have come per- 
ceptibly nearer the sea-surface, where new channels have 
had to be sought among the shoals for the passage of their 
fishing-boats, and where the stages must be again and again 
lengthened over their bed-rock foundations in order to se- 
cure a depth of water sufficient to float their small craft. 
A gentleman of St. John's has made a study of the question 
for forty years, and has come to the conclusion that eleva- 
tion is still in progress along the whole coast. He believes 
that the rate of uplift is about twice as rapid in northern 
Labrador as in Newfoundland. He has found among the 
older settlements of the island some where the inhabitants 
are in a very unfavourable position for plying their industry 
on account of the rim of just submerged rock-ledges that 
obstruct the harbours. He has asked the older men why 
they chose such locations for settlement. The reply was 
that they or their fathers had made these harbours when 
the conditions were very different from the present ; namely, 
when the harbours were deeper. Such qualitative evidence, 
however great in amount, must yield in value to the testi- 
mony of even a few bench-marks carefully distributed 
along the coast." Here, again, a most welcome contribu- 
tion to observational geology can be made by an expedi- 
tion which, by so placing bench-marks, can give the geolo- 
gists of the future a standard for the measurement of the 
rate of crustal movement. On quantitative observations, 
in geology no less than in all other physical sciences, hang 
all the law and the prophets. 



136 LABRADOR 

The sea-coast phenomena apparently show that the epoch 
of emergence is not yet closed ; with greater certainty they 
tell us of the extent of maximum submergence. With 
very close accuracy the highest, and presumably the oldest, 
of the shore-lines can be located along the prehistoric 
headlands and intervening bays. In the summer of 1900 
the highest shore-line was approximately fixed at some 
thirty points on the 1100-mile journey from St. John's to 
Nachvak. Its position gives a sort of measure as to how 
much of the Labrador scenery was given final form and 
colour by the wash and wear and beach accumulation in the 
shifting zone of the breakers. The discovery of the maxi- 
mum uplift has also a strong theoretical interest in adding 
to the observations that some day may suffice to solve the 
great problem of the cause of such broad upheavals of the 
earth's crust. 

The principle by which the highest shore-line was de- 
termined is a simple one. It was only necessary to seek 
out at the various landing-places the seaward facing hill- 
slopes which must have suffered strong wave attack in 
case they had slowly emerged from the sea in post-Glacial 
time. These slopes, when high enough, always show at 
once a vigorous contrast between the washed and unwashed 
zones. Above the highest shore-line, the glacial boulders 
dotting the treeless hillsides still lie in practically their 
original positions. Below that line they have been swept 
away. The highest shore-line is, therefore, just below 
the boulder-limit, which, of course, has been driven by 
storm-waves a little higher than the high-water mark of 
the level sea. At this line the " fossil" beaches, cliffs, and 
chasms cease, and the smooth, boulder-dotted slopes begin. 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST. 137 

The map of Figure 17 gives a synopsis of the observations 
so far made on the present altitudes of the highest shore- 
line. The figures represent the number of feet through 
which the coastal belt at individual points has risen since 
the Ice Period. The illustration indicates "that the uplift 
on the Labrador has been greatest near Hopedale. Hamil- 
ton Inlet owes in part its depth, and indeed its very exist- 
ence as an inlet (it is but 10 fathoms deep at the Narrows), 
to the fact that the part of the plateau in which it lies has 
not been elevated as much as the land to north and to south. 
The line rapidly rises as it crosses the Strait of Belle Isle, 
and seems to be about 500 feet in height along the whole 
eastern shore of Newfoundland." 

It is further clear that the uplift is a real and independent 
upward movement of the land and not a mere withdrawal 
of the sea-water, lowered, it may be, in the filling of distant 
troughs or basins formed by the recent subsidence of other 
parts of the ocean-floor. On the contrary, the evidence is 
unmistakable that "there has been unequal positive uplift 
of the earth's crust. The force responsible for this great 
piece of work has been applied locally and in varying degree. 
The result is that to-day the actual distance from the centre 
of the earth of every point on the highest shore-line is 
greater than it was at the close of the Glacial Period. " 

Why has the earth's crust been thus hoisted? Some 
geologists believe that the crust is elastic and sensitive, even 
to the load of an ice-cap, and that the upheaval of the Labra- 
dor is due to the lightening of the load on the crust when the 
massive glacier disappeared. It is certainly true that the 
recent uplift of the northern half of the continent has been 
most pronounced where the ice-load was presumably 



138 LABRADOR 

heaviest. The crust underlying northwestern Europe has 
behaved in a similarly suggestive way since the melting 
away of the thick Scandinavian ice-cap. The theory of 
crustal sensitiveness is strengthened by this repeated oc- 
currence of the phenomenon, but as yet other explanations 
cannot be excluded. The final unravelling of the mystery 
will be of prime importance in geological investigations as 
to the raising of mountain-chains and the increase of the 
continents. 

We cross the Strait of Belle Isle once more, homeward 
bound. Large questions are left to us. From Archean 
time as from the latest grand event in Labrador's history, 
they rise to claim the attention of future generations of 
Nature's students. That attention they will surely have, 
for the coast shares with other wild lands one greater value 
"than the best arable we have." Old Jacques Cartier, 
searching for an Eldorado, found Labrador, and in disgust 
called it " the land of Cain." A century and a half after- 
ward Lieutenant Roger Curtis wrote of it as " a country 
formed of frightful mountains, and unfruitful vallies, a prodi- 
gious heap of barren rock" ; and George Cartwright, in his 
gossipy journal, summed up his impressions after five and 
twenty years on the coast. He said: "God created that 
country last of all, and threw together there the refuse of 
his materials as of no use to mankind." 

In our own day the artist and scientific explorer give us 
wiser counsels. We have at last learned the vital fact that 
Nature has set apart her own picture-galleries where men 
may resort if for a time they would forget human contri- 
vances. It is good for man to be alone, good for him to 



GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 139 

leave his fellows, very good to forget how to make or spend 
money. That man is unhuman who thinks of his income or 
his outgo above the snow-line or in the depths of a Colorado 
canyon. It is as if the pageant of earth's history has left 
to the waste places some of its choicest settings. The great 
playgrounds of the world, — the high Alps, the Yosemite, 
the Selkirks, a Saguenay, — they are in large part desert, 
most providentially useless. And such a wilderness is 
Labrador, a kind of mental and moral sanitarium. The 
keen air of its midsummer is no more bracing to the nerves 
and sinews of the body than its quiet beauty and savage 
grandeur are stimulating to the powers of thought and ap- 
preciation. The beautiful is but the visible splendour of 
the true. The enjoyment of a visit to the coast may con- 
sist not alone in the impressions of the scenery ; there may 
be added the deeper pleasure of reading out the history of 
the noble landscapes, the sculptured monuments of ele- 
mental strife and of revolutions in distant ages. 



CHAPTER V 

THE HAMILTON RIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 
By A. P. Low 

Hamilton Inlet is the largest of the many long fiords 
which indent the Atlantic coast. Like the others, it is 
very deep, and is surrounded by high hills, often rising a 
thousand feet sheer from the water, while its surface is 
frequently broken by large, bold, rocky islands. The lower 
slope and islands are wooded with dark spruce mingled 
with the lighter-coloured birch and aspen, forming a pleas- 
ing contrast with the bare rocks of the summits. The 
distance, from the hospital station of Indian Harbour at 
its mouth, in a southwest direction to the head of the inlet, 
is slightly over one hundred and fifty miles, while its aver- 
age breadth is fourteen miles. Forty-five miles above the 
entrance, the inlet narrows and is only about a mile wide 
for upwards of five miles. During each change of tide a 
strong current with rapids occurs at this point. 

Rigolet, the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company 
for the Atlantic coast, is situated on the north side of the 
lower part of the narrows. 

A village of Eskimo, made up of a cluster of small log 
houses, occupies the shore of a small cove at the upper end ; 
its chief interest lies in the fact that it is the most southerly 
community of these people. The inhabitants have been 
long in contact with the white men, and have acquired many 
of the virtues and vices of civilization. 

140 



THE HAMILTON RIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 141 




142 LABRADOR 

The inlet gradually widens above the narrows into Lake 
Melville, which is fifteen miles across in its widest part. 
The eastern third is full of wild, rocky islands. The Mealy 
Mountains rise directly from its southern shores. The 
northern side is also high, but there is often a wide margin 
of low land between the water and the rocky wall of the 
fiord. Northwest River enters on the north side, about 
eighty miles beyond the narrows. The stream is only 
about one hundred yards wide at its mouth, but averages 
fifteen feet in depth. Half a mile upstream it expands 
into a small lake, which, three miles farther up, again con- 
tracts for four hundred yards to form the outlet of Grand 
Lake, a large body of fresh water extending westward some 
forty miles, in a deep valley between high, rocky walls. 

A Hudson's Bay post is situated at the mouth of North- 
west River. It consists of some half a dozen small log 
buildings. Early in the last century this was an im- 
portant place, the residence of the chief factor in charge of 
Labrador. It then had a large farm attached, where oats 
and vegetables were easily grown. Its importance was 
greatly diminished by the abandonment of the inland 
posts in the seventies, and later the Indians trading there 
were induced by missionaries to take the proceeds of their 
winter's hunt to the posts on the north side of the 
St. Lawrence, so that at present the trade of the post 
is exclusively with the whites living about the inlet. 
Here also is a fur-trading station of Revillon Freres of 
Paris. 

Almost opposite the mouth of the Northwest River on 
the south side of Lake Melville is Carter's Basin, a small 
bay into which empty the Kenamou and Kenamich rivers. 



THE HAMILTON RIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 143 

The former is much the larger, and drains an extensive area 
of the highlands to the southwest. It is very rapid and 
practically unnavigable. Above Northwest River the inlet 
has been silted up by sand brought down and deposited 
there by the Hamilton River, which flows into the head 
of the inlet. A long, narrow point stretching out from the 
north shore just above the Northwest River divides the 
shallows from the deeper portion of the inlet; the upper 
part is called Goose Bay, and extends twenty miles to its 
head, which receives a small river, famous for the large 
brook trout taken about its mouth in the autumn months. 
There is here a large lumber mill belonging to the Grand 
River Lumber Company. Their " loggers " penetrate far 
into the country along the river valley. Besides their build- 
ings, small log houses are scattered along the shores of the 
inlet, wherever the ground is sufficiently level for a small 
garden; these are the winter houses of the white people 
who reside permanently on the Atlantic coast. They are 
called " planters" or "livyeres," to distinguish them from 
the summer fishing population from Newfoundland. The 
planters are largely descendants of settlers brought out 
from England for the salmon-fisheries. Some of their 
ancestors were among the original settlers who came to 
Sandwich Bay with Cartwright in 1770; others are de- 
scended from servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. 
They are all poor and hopelessly in debt, either to the 
Hudson's Bay Company or to Newfoundland fishing firms, 
so that these people have little hope or ambition to better 
their condition. Their life is fairly happy and close to 
nature. The sea supplies fish freely; their gardens, 
potatoes, From the proceeds of their summer's cod-fishery 



144 LABRADOR 

and winter's fur hunt, they obtain food and clothing, to- 
gether with a few " luxuries." Early in the summer they 
leave their houses on the inlet for the outer coast, where 
they engage in the cod-fishing, usually with nets and gear 
provided by some Newfoundland fishing firm. As a rule, 
the amount of fish caught does not pay for the advances 
of provisions and clothing at the prices charged by the 
merchants, so they get deeper and deeper in debt year by 
year. At the close of the cod-fishery they return to their 
houses on the inlet, stopping on the way at the Hudson's 
Bay posts, where they receive other advances of provisions 
and clothing to be charged against their coming winter's 
hunt. Arriving home, they dig their potatoes and catch 
and freeze trout, which swarm in the mouths of all the 
streams at this season. As soon as sufficient snow falls, 
they set their traps for marten, fox, otter, lynx, and other 
fur-bearing animals. Each hunter has a "path" or line 
of traps fifty miles or more in length. A single winter 
visit to all the traps on the line may involve a week's 
journey. Small " shacks" or shelters, where the hunters 
may pass the night, are built at convenient distances along 
the path. 

With the advent of spring, the skins get out of condition, 
and the fur path is abandoned for the seal hunt. These 
animals are killed by shooting them on the ice, where they 
come up through cracks and holes to bask in the sun. 
Later, when the ice leaves, they are caught in heavy nets. 
By the time the seal hunt is over, the garden dug, and 
potatoes planted, it is time to go to the outer coast for the 
cod-fishery. 

This is the yearly round of the planter, It applies all 



THE HAMILTON RIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 145 

along the Labrador, except that nowhere else can vege- 
tables be grown, owing to the settlements being nearer to 
the Arctic current on the outside coast. Although it 
may not appeal to many, it is a much better and freer 
life than is the lot of the poor in civilization, with its 
monotonous daily grind for a mere subsistence. 

As regards the chances of sport about Hamilton Inlet, 
the summer season is unfavourable, there as well as else- 
where. The big game consists of barren-ground and 
woodland caribou, black bear, and seals. Caribou are 
found in small bands on the Mealy Mountains immediately 
south of Lake Melville, while in the winter large bands of 
barren-ground caribou come out on the coast to the north- 
ward, and have been killed in great numbers within a few 
miles of the inlet. Bears are found on the burnt areas, 
where they feed on blueberries in the late summer. The 
seals, especially the harbour seal, are common in the waters 
of the inlet, and often afford good sport with the rifle. 

Wild fowl and geese are very abundant in the spring and 
fall, and are killed in great numbers below Rigolet. The 
curlew, which formerly passed in great flocks on their 
migration southward, are now nearly extinct ; the Canada 
grouse, or spruce partridge, is abundant about the head of 
the inlet, and the ruffed grouse is also common. During 
the winter, great numbers of willow ptarmigan migrate 
southward and feed in flocks on the willow buds in the 
valleys. 

Hamilton Inlet was once famous for its salmon-fishery, 
but the use of numerous cod-traps along the coast has 
practically exterminated the salmon, as far as concerns 
rod-fishing in the rivers. I have visited the inlet in October, 



146 LABRADOR 

and can vouch for the excellence of the trout-fishing from 
that time until the ice becomes so thick that it is impossible 
to cut holes through it. Dr. Grenfell reports that the trout 
bite freely all summer. The fish appear to be sea-run ; al- 
though their sojourn in salt water is probably short, for 
they do not lose their markings as do the trout of the St. 
Lawrence. Large fish, up to six and seven pounds in weight, 
are caught in the lower stretches and at the mouths of all 
the streams flowing into Melville Lake, and take the fly 
freely until the waters freeze over. My knowledge of the 
Hamilton River from its mouth to the Grand Falls is con- 
fined to the conditions prevailing in late winter and early 
spring. We left Northwest River early in March and 
reached the falls on the 1st of May. The great length of 
time taken on the trip was due to our small party having 
to draw on sledges the outfit, tents, canoes, and provisions 
sufficient for the following summer's work in the interior. 
This amounted to four loads of two hundred pounds for 
each member, and a consequent sevenfold lengthening 
of the original distance of two hundred and fifty miles. 

The Hamilton River is the most important stream of the 
eastern watershed of the peninsula. It is upwards of five 
hundred miles in length, and extends westward halfway 
to Hudson Bay. To the north and west its tributaries 
interlock with those of the Northwest River and with the 
head waters of the George and Koksoak rivers> both of 
which flow north into Ungava Bay, while to the south the 
Hamilton is separated by a low, sinuous watershed from 
the rivers flowing southward into the Gulf of St. Lawrencej 

At the Grand Falls, some two hundred and fifty miles 
above its mouth, the river is naturally divided into two 



THE HAMILTON RIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 147 

parts which are quite dissimilar in physical character. 
The lower part occupies a deep, ancient valley, cut down 
into the hard, crystalline rocks of the plateau, so that the 
present level of the river is from five hundred to one thou- 
sand feet below the general level of the surrounding country. 
This deep valley varies in width from one hundred yards 
to more than two miles between the rocky walls. The river 
flows with a strong current often broken by rapids, espe- 
cially along the upper stretches. Only in one place has it 
a direct fall over a rock obstruction, and that is at the 
Muskrat Falls, twenty-seven miles above its mouth, where 
a dam of glacial drift has diverted the stream from its 
ancient course and has caused it to find a new channel on 
the south side of a rocky knoll where the river falls seventy 
feet over ledges in a distance of four hundred yards. 

The greater part of the valley below the Grand Falls has 
been burnt over by frequent fires, which have destroyed 
much of the original forest of spruce, its place being taken 
by small second-growth aspen, white birch, and spruce. 
Where the original forest remains, the trees are fair-sized 
and of commercial value, in marked contrast to the stunted 
spruce found partly covering the rolling surface of the 
plateau above the valley on both sides. The river varies in 
width, and usually only partly fills the bottom of the valley, 
being confined between banks of sand or glacial drift form- 
ing the soil of the bottom. A reference to the accompany- 
ing map shows that the river valley as far as the junction 
of Minipi River, eighty miles upstream, conforms in its 
southwesterly direction with that of Hamilton Inlet (Lake 
Melville). The general direction then changes to west- 
northwest, and so continues to the Grand Falls. A more 



148 LABRADOR 

detailed account of the various courses and characteristics 
of the valley than can be given here may be found in my 
report, and might be consulted by any intending visitor 
to the falls. 1 

The river flows into the head of Lake Melville on the south 
side of Goose Bay, and is separated from it by a long, low, 
sandy point. The mouth of the river is obstructed by 
wide shoals with numerous narrow channels between them. 
These continue for about ten miles, where the stream is 
about a mile wide and gradually narrows to Muskrat Falls. 
Above the falls there is a steady current for fourteen miles 
to the foot of Porcupine Rapids, which are nearly three 
miles long. Good tracking along the banks with deep 
water makes the ascent easy. An expansion called Gull 
Island Lake extends six miles from the head of Porcupine 
Rapids to the foot of the next rapids. In the next twenty 
miles, to the mouth of the Minipi, the valley gradually 
narrows, leaving very little bottom-land between the river 
and its rocky walls. This portion of the river is very rough 
and almost a continuous rapid. Ascending the stream, 
Gull Rapids extend for nearly five miles above the lake, 
with shallow water and great boulders obstructing the 
channel. The second, or Horseshoe Rapid, is at the sharp 
bend to the southward; it also is shallow and filled with 
boulders. The river now contracts to about one hundred 
yards in width, and deepens, so that although the current 
is swift, the surface is broken only for a short distance 
below the junction of the Minipi, where a short portage 
may be necessary to pass the head of the rapid. 

1 Report on Labrador Peninsula, A. P. Low, Ann. Rep. Geol. Survey 
of Canada, Vol. VIII, Part L, 1895. 



THE HAMILTON RIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 149 

Above the Minipi the valley soon widens, and varies 
from one to two miles across the bottom. The rocky walls 
rise from seven hundred feet to nine hundred feet above the 
water, while the glacial drift in the valley has been cut 
by the river into terraces, which are seen flanking the walls 
at heights ranging from twenty feet to two hundred and 
fifty feet. The navigation is good for the next forty miles, 
the even current of the river being broken only by a few 
short rapids not difficult to ascend. A number of very 
beautiful stretches are seen along this portion, where the 
channel is divided by islands covered with thick green 
forest, giving contrast with the bare rocky walls down 
which a number of small tributaries tumble in feathery 
cascades. The valley again contracts, and for eighteen 
miles, to its outlet from Winokapau Lake, the current is 
swift, and the river broken by a number of rapids, making 
the ascent difficult, but probably entailing portages only at 
a few short pitches. 

The entrance to the lake is impressive; the walls of the 
valley are less than a quarter of a mile apart, and tower 
in sheer cliffs for a thousand feet above the stream. The 
change from the foaming rapids of the outlet to the quiet 
surface of the lake is especially pleasing to the somewhat 
wearied traveller. 

Winokapau Lake is thirty miles long and varies from one 
mile to two miles and a half in width; its waters fill the 
valley from wall to wall. The lake is remarkably deep, 
isolated soundings giving over four hundred feet; only 
a few soundings were made during our passage, as the ice 
was then four feet nine inches thick, and two hours of hard 
work were required to put a hole through it. The upper 



150 LABRADOB 

end of the lake is shallow, being filled with sand brought 
down by the river. The Hudson's Bay post was situated 
on a sandy plain near the inlet ; it was abandoned in 1873, 
and subsequently destroyed by fire. The old journals 
of this post show that the first snow fell about September 
20th and remained until the following June . The lowest tem- 
perature recorded was — 55° F. Geese, ducks, and sum- 
mer birds arrived about the 10th of May and were killed 
in large numbers in the open water at the head of the lake. 
In the autumn and winter, ptarmigan were very abundant, 
while caribou and bears were frequently killed in the valley 
and on the surrounding plateau. The spring catch of fish 
was always notable, white fish and trout being taken in 
large numbers in nets set about the post. In the summer, 
all the inhabitants used to go in canoes with the winter's 
fur to the post at Northwest River. Before leaving the 
place, potatoes and turnips were planted and left to the 
care of Nature until the return of the traders in September ; 
it is not surprising that the comments on the crops were 
unfavourable. 

The river is easily navigable from the head of Winokapau 
Lake to the Grand Falls portage, situated on the north side 
of the river some forty-five miles upstream, at the foot 
of a continuous rapid, which extends several miles to the 
mouth of Bowdoin Canyon. 

In order to pass the Grand Falls, and reach the upper 
part of the river, the valley must be left at the foot of the 
rapids, where a portage, up the bed of a small tributary, 
rises abruptly seven hundred feet and then, by gradual 
ascent for two miles, leads to a small lake on the level of 
the plateau. The route then leads through fourteen small 



THE HAMILTON RIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 151 

lakes connected by as many portages, and ends in an ex- 
pansion of the river immediately above the rapids leading 
to the falls. This route is over twenty miles in length, 
and more than one-fourth is on portages. To obtain a view 
of the falls, the river must be crossed at the end of the 
portages and the far bank descended past the rapids, where 
an excellent view may be obtained, from the top of the wall 
enclosing the circular basin, into which the river falls. 
A descent may here be made into the canyon, with less 
difficulty and risk than are incurred in descents from the 
near bank. Our party, from what I can learn, was the 
only one to view the falls from that side. It must have 
been a great disappointment to the others, after their long 
trip, to have seen the falls only from the east side, where 
no adequate view can be obtained. This warning is in- 
tended especially for the visitor who might decide, owing 
to the difficulty of the portages, to leave his canoes at the 
lower end of the portages and tramp overland to the falls. 
The distance, between the lake expansion at the upper 
end of the portage route and the mouth of Bowdoin Canyon, 
is eight miles in a straight line running south-southeast. 
The river at the upper end of this line has an elevation of 
sixteen hundred and sixty feet above sea-level, a little 
below the general level of the surrounding country. Where 
it issues from the canyon into the main valley, it is nine 
hundred feet above the sea ; there is thus a drop of seven 
hundred and sixty feet in a distance, by the river, of less 
than twelve miles. Considering the volume of the stream, 
estimated at fifty thousand cubic feet per second, this is a 
phenomenal descent. If the energy developed by the fall 
could be turned into work, it would produce the enormous 



152 LABRADOR 

amount of upwards of four million three hundred thousand 
horse-power. Neglecting the rapids above and below the 
falls and confining the calculation to the power of the falls 
itself, we find that it would develop energy equal to one 
million seven hundred thousand horse-power, an amount 
sufficient to operate a large proportion of all the manu- 
factories and railways of Canada. 

For a mile downstream from its lakelike expansion, the 
river is dotted with small, rocky islands, covered with small 
evergreens. The great stream is thereby broken into a 
number of narrow channels with swift current. The river 
then narrows to less than four hundred yards, and for a mile 
passes over a number of rocky ledges between low, wooded 
banks, falling fifty feet in a succession of rapids. It again 
widens to nearly a mile, and flows swiftly between small 
islands for two miles ; then, turning southeast, it contracts 
to less than half its previous width and rushes along with 
heavy rapids in a shallow channel obstructed by huge 
boulders. In this manner the river continues for two miles, 
gradually narrowing as it descends. The banks and bottom 
are solid rock, and the stream in the next mile has cut a 
narrow and gradually deepening trough, so that, at the 
lower end of the course, it dashes through a gorge about 
fifty yards wide with steep walls, one hundred and ten feet 
below the level of its upper end. In the last three hun- 
dred yards the grade is very steep, where the confined 
waters rush along in a swirling mass, thrown into enormous, 
long, surging waves, at least twenty feet high, the deafening 
noise of which completely drowns the heavy boom of the 
great falls immediately below. With a final great surge 
the pent-up water is shot down a steep incline for a hundred 



THE HAMILTON BIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 153 

feet, where it breaks into a silvery mass and plunges into 
a circular basin two hundred feet below. The momentum 
acquired during the descent of the slope is sufficient to 
carry the mass of water far out from the perpendicular 
rocky wall, leaving at the bottom an almost free passage 
between the foot of the cliff and the falling water. Owing 
to the dense column of spray which rises continuously 
from the basin to a height of nearly a thousand feet, 
it is impossible to obtain a clear photograph of the 
cascade. 

The trees on the slopes about the falls are largely white 
spruce upwards of seventy feet in height, while the icicles 
fringing the foot of the ice-covered walls (on the first 
of May) were more than fifty feet in length. Owing to 
the refraction of the ice which flashed the sunlight into 
all the colours of the spectrum, the spectacle was most gor- 
geous. The total height of the falls, from the crest of the 
incline to the basin, is three hundred and two feet ; in 
shape it resembles on a gigantic scale a stream flowing 
through a V-shaped trough and issuing freely from its 
lower end. The basin at the bottom is nearly circular, 
with a diameter of two hundred yards. The rocky walls 
surrounding it rise perpendicularly five hundred feet, except 
at a narrow cut at right angles to the falls where the waters 
pass out into Bowdoin Canyon. The surface of the basin 
is continuously agitated by the rush of waters and huge, 
lumpy waves leap high upon its rocky walls. The stunning 
noise of the fall and the wonderful display of energy are 
so awe-inspiring that there is a feeling of dread in ap- 
proaching the brink, and the Indians cannot be induced 
to visit the neighbourhood. 



154 LABRADOR 

Bowdoin Canyon was so named by Cary and Cole, who 
discovered it in 1891. Issuing from the basin at the foot 
of the great cascade, the river zigzags in half-mile courses 
to the east and southwest until it finally issues into the main 
valley. The distance from the falls to the mouth of the 
canyon is eight miles in a straight line, but by the river 
it is more than twice that distance. The canyon is cut 
sharply and nearly perpendicularly out of the granites 
and other crystalline rocks to a depth of over five hundred 
feet below the general surface of the plateau. The zigzag 
courses of the gorge conform with the directions of two sets 
of jointage planes, which split the granites into huge blocks 
in the area below the falls. The cracks appear to influence 
the direction of the river courses, and to have greatly as- 
sisted the water in clearing out the gorge. The canyon 
is probably a new valley excavated by the river since the 
Glacial Period. The ancient river which, in pre-Glacial 
time, flowed down the main valley seems to have been 
diverted by dams of glacial drift and perhaps by local 
changes of level, so that it now flows on the surface of the 
plateau to the north of the old valley. On reentering the 
old valley with such a tremendous fall, the river has cut 
out the canyon in a comparatively short period of time. 
The break in the surface of the plateau is so sharp that an 
approach to within a few yards of the edge may be made 
without any indication of its presence, the first warning 
being the hoarse roar of the rapids far below. Across its 
top the gorge rarely exceeds a hundred yards ; at the bottom 
the river is confined to a width of a hundred feet. The 
difference in level between the water in the basin and that 
issuing into the main valley is two hundred and sixty feet, 



THE HAMILTON RIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 155 

and this descent is in a continuous rapid by the pent-up 
stream. 

Above the Grand Falls the character of the river changes 
completely ; it now flows nearly on a level with the surface 
of the plateau, spreading out to fill the valleys between the 
long, low ridges, arranged en echelon over the country. 
The river in passing around the ridges is often broken into 
several channels by large islands; in other places where 
the valleys are wide, it spreads out into long, irregular lakes 
studded with islands. The current, instead of flowing 
regularly, alternates between short rapids and long lake 
stretches. The banks are usually low, and covered with 
a dense growth of willows, which form a wide fringe between 
the water and the spruce trees covering the higher ground 
behind. The general direction of the river is west-north- 
west from the Grand Falls to Petitsikapau Lake, more 
than a hundred miles above. Throughout this distance 
its course is nearly parallel to the direction of the glacial 
striae and to that of the ridges of glacial drift. All these 
features give an aspect of newness to the upper part of 
the river, and indicate that its present course and condition 
have been determined by the post-Glacial configuration 
of the plateau. 

The first expansion above the portage is called Jacopie 
Lake. It is seven miles long by about two miles wide, and 
is surrounded by low, rocky hills partly burnt over. A 
stretch of eight miles of swiftly flowing river connects with 
the island-dotted Flour Lake, which is ten miles long with 
deep bays leading off on both sides. At its head the river 
enters by two nearly equal channels, which unite again 
in Sandgirt Lake, some fifteen miles above. The north 



156 LABRADOR 

channel leads through Lobstick Lake, where a long bay 
passes northward and connects the spring at high water 
with Lake Michikamau on the head waters of the Northwest 
River. The south channel is the ordinary canoe route 
between Flour and Sandgirt lakes. 

Sandgirt Lake is an irregular, shallow body of water, with 
many islands of drift. It is twelve miles long from the 
southern outlet to the mouth of the Ashuanipi branch. 
Owing to the number of canoe routes which centre here, the 
lake is an important gathering place for the Indians of the 
interior. The Hamilton River divides into two branches, 
the larger, or Ashuanipi, flowing from the northwest and 
the Attikonak from the south. The principal route from 
Hamilton River to Michikamau Lake and northward also 
ends here. The Indians who pass the winter hunting in 
this region congregate at Sandgirt Lake shortly after the 
ice leaves the river, and thence proceed in company south- 
ward to the Hudson's Bay Company posts situated on the 
north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

The Attikonak branch of the Hamilton flows into the 
southern part of Sandgirt Lake, where it has about half 
the volume of the other branch. It takes its rise in 
Attikonak Lake, close to the southern watershed; thence 
a portage leads to the upper waters of the Romaine River 
flowing into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. From Sandgirt 
Lake to the south end of Attikonak, the distance by river 
is about one hundred and fifty miles, and the stream is 
practically a succession of long, narrow lakes connected by 
stretches of rapids. The country through which it flows 
is broken by low hills of rock and ridges of drift, with much 
low, swampy land between. The lowlands are covered 





Two Views of Bowdoin Canyon 



THE HAMILTON BIVEB AND THE GRAND FALLS 157 

with small trees, chiefly black spruce, along with larch and 
balsam fir. Lake Attikonak is upwards of forty miles long, 
and is so covered with islands that no idea of its shape or 
width is obtained by a passage through it. Its water is 
clear but brownish, and does not appear to be very deep. 

The Ashuanipi, or main branch of the Hamilton, enters 
Sandgirt Lake on its west side. The river flows from the 
northwest for seventy-five miles in a wide valley, broken 
by long ridges, which cut the stream into a perfect labyrinth 
of channels connecting irregularly shaped lake expansions. 
An intelligent detailed description of the watery maze is 
almost impossible, and would be too long for the present 
chapter. A few miles above Sandgirt Lake the granites 
and gneisses give place to bedded sandstones, limestones, 
and shales, with which are associated bedded iron ores. 
These rocks have a remarkably close resemblance to the 
iron formations of the south and west of Lake Superior, 
and there is reason to believe that, in the future, important 
deposits of iron ore will be found along the upper Hamilton 
River. A change in the physical features follows the change 
in the rocks; the rocky hills become higher and sharper, 
while the ridges are longer and much less broken, causing 
the valley to be walled in between rocky barriers that rise 
from three hundred feet to five hundred feet above its 
surface. 

With the change of soil there is a surprising change in 
the trees. These increase in size; and the monotonous 
forest of small black spruce gives place to a more diversified 
one of white and black spruce, balsam fir, larch, balsam, 
aspen, poplar, and white birch, all growing in the valley and 
on the sides of the hills. This portion of the river is a 



158 LABRADOR 

paradise for fishermen ; the swiftly flowing water, in the 
numerous channels connecting the lake expansions, swarm 
with large brook trout greedy for any description of lure, 
from a salmon-fly to a bit of- red flannel on a cod-hook. 
More fish were taken with cod-hooks by the canoemen than 
I could catch with the regulation rod and tackle. The deep, 
quiet eddies and the foam-covered spots at the foot of rapids 
are the resort of lake trout reaching more than twenty 
pounds in weight. In the rapids the game ouaniniche, or 
land-locked salmon, may be easily captured with a fly. 
Whitefish are also seen bobbing about in the thick foam, 
and take an artificial May-fly; as they jump and fight as 
fiercely as the ouaniniche, they afford good sport, but, being 
very tender in the mouth, they are often lost. The willow 
ptarmigan and Canada goose breed abundantly in this region. 
The flocks of unmated geese lose their wing-feathers in 
the summer, and, being unable to fly, may be chased ashore 
and captured, usually after a most exciting run. Caribou 
may be secured with little trouble. Bears are not very 
numerous. 

At the head of the long northwest course, a short stream 
leads into Lake Petitsikapau, a large, irregularly shaped 
body of water, separated by a rocky ridge from the head 
waters of the George River, flowing north into Ungava 
Bay. On its shore is situated the ruins of Fort Nascaupee, 
established by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1842, and 
abandoned in 1873. The ruins stand in a small clearing 
close to the edge of the lake. The houses were built of small, 
squared logs with sawn-board roofs. The main building 
is about twelve by eighteen feet, with a low attic. Smaller 
buildings adjoined the house on both sides, and were prob- 



THE HAMILTON RIVEE AND THE GRAND FALLS 159 

ably used as kitchen and shop. The foundation of an- 
other small building about twenty yards in the rear is 
probably the remains of the servants' house, while the 
powder-magazine, half buried in the ground, stands farther 
back. Adjoining is a small burying-ground with a large 
cross in the centre; no marks were found on the graves. 
In the attic of the main building a fragment of the Albion 
of March 7, 1846, was found. Close to the house are several 
patches of rhubarb in a flourishing condition. The whole 
forms the ruined remains of what corresponded to a typical 
inland post of to-day, as, for example, those of Nichicun and 
Mistassini. Such a post is in charge of a postmaster, usually 
graduated from the ranks of the superior servants of the 
larger posts, and married to an Indian woman. He has 
generally two or three Indians or half-breeds under him, 
and these with their families make up the settlement. 
Owing to the great distances from the coast and the diffi- 
culties of transportation, the amount of civilized provisions 
brought in is small, and the daily ration is very meagre. 
About one pound of flour per day falls to the share of each 
family, with tea and sugar in proportion, so that all must 
look to the country for food. This is largely provided by 
nets, as the posts are always located conveniently to some 
good fishing lake. Ptarmigan and other game birds 
provide most of the flesh, supplemented with caribou, bear, 
beaver, lynx, muskrat, and rabbits. 

At Nichicun potatoes will not grow in the short summer 
season, and this was probably the case at Nascaupee, so 
that the farinaceous food was limited to the family share 
of the daily pound of flour. The life at an inland post is a 
lonely one. With the departure of the ice in spring, the 



160 LABRADOB 

band of Indians belonging to the post congregate with their 
furs, which are soon packed in bundles of one hundred 
pounds and loaded into large bark canoes for the voyage 
to the coast. All the active males are required as canoemen, 
leaving behind only the very aged, cripples, and children. 
Many of the women accompany the brigade in small canoes ; 
the remainder scatter about the lakes to convenient fishing 
places. The post is practically abandoned until the return 
of the brigade, late in the summer, with canoes deeply 
laden with provisions, ammunition, and goods for the next 
season's trade. A few days after the arrival, each Indian 
has received his outfit and departs for his winter hunting- 
grounds, leaving the inhabitants of the post to themselves. 
The early fall is employed in securing a supply of trout 
and whitefish for the winter, and nets are set on the spawn- 
ing-grounds for the fish. This ends the work of the year, 
and everybody becomes a trapper of fur until Christmas 
time. With the new year, the cutting of fire-wood for the 
coming year is commenced ; the wood is drawn home with 
dog-teams. As the spring approaches, the canoes are 
mended and preparations made for the annual trip to the 
coast, which is eagerly anticipated, as it means the annual 
mail and contact with civilization. 

The Ashuanipi, at the entrance to Petitsikapau, bends 
sharply to the south, where it flows out of a large lake of 
the same name, situated near the southern watershed, 
close to the head waters of the Moisie River, which flows 
southward into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The distance 
from the bend to the head of the lake is upwards of 
one hundred and fifty miles, about half of which is un- 
surveyed. 



THE HAMILTON RIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 161 

In closing this brief description of the Hamilton River, 
a few words of advice may be given to intending visitors. 
At the present time no facilities exist on Hamilton Inlet 
for a trip inland. The white men living about the inlet are 
unaccustomed to canoes, and use heavy sea-boats for their 
short trips inland. For an extended journey to the in- 
terior, canoes are required, and, in my experience for such 
work, the best are built of cedar; these are nearly as light 
as the Indian bark canoes, and are much more enduring. 
They should be built larger and deeper than the ordinary 
pleasure canoe, which is an abomination on a serious ex- 
ploratory trip. A good size is nineteen feet long, forty 
inches wide, and about eighteen inches deep. Such a 
canoe will take a load of twelve hundred pounds with the 
crew of three or four persons, without danger, through 
heavy rapids and across windy lake stretches, where the 
ordinary canoe could not venture. These canoes weigh 
about one hundred and twenty-five pounds, and are easily 
carried by two men. An ordinary camp equipment, in- 
cluding mosquito tent and plenty of good blankets, is all 
that is required. The provisions should be as simple as 
possible, consisting chiefly of pork, bacon, flour, and beans, 
along with tea and sugar. Condensed foods may be good 
for rations on forced marches, where nothing else is avail- 
able, but they are highly unsatisfactory to canoemen work- 
ing hard upstream, who must have a full weight of three 
pounds of solid food a day. A few tinned luxuries may be 
taken if the trip does not exceed six weeks in duration, — 
a good rule to follow is an allowance of three pounds per 
man, together with the limit of four hundred pounds' weight 
for each canoeman ascending a river, so that if two men 



162 LABRADOR 

are engaged in propelling the canoe, the load should not 
greatly exceed eight hundred pounds in weight. 

As the whites know nothing about river work, and the 
Indians are few and unreliable, it is necessary to secure 
canoemen in Canada, and take them along to Hamilton 
Inlet. On my trips through the country, I have used Indians 
and French half-breeds from the Lake St. John district 
of Quebec, and have found them good, willing, and reliable 
men. Similar men may be obtained through the officer in 
charge of any of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts along 
the frontier. Fish are plentiful in the rivers, especially 
above the Grand Falls, and a net set nightly affords great 
assistance in securing the surprising amount of food re- 
quired by a party of able-bodied men. No reliance should 
be placed upon the killing of game during the summer 
months, and if by good luck caribou or bears are met with, 
it is easy to throw away a corresponding amount of pro- 
visions, but a sufficient supply for the entire trip should 
be taken in case of ill luck; this is an essential matter, as 
more parties have had to turn back from the northern 
wilderness owing to lack of food than from other reasons. 
A good supply of provisions means good-natured canoe- 
men, willing to go anywhere without a thought of danger, 
whereas the suspicion of starvation will change the same 
men into a discontented, mutinous crew. Mr. Leonidas 
Hubbard, subeditor of Outing, lost his life in 1903 in 
this district from starvation. His assistant, Mr. Dillon 
Wallace, and his half-breed guide only just succeeded in 
getting out alive. He had relied almost entirely on what 
game he could capture. 

Mrs. Hubbard and Mr. Dillon Wallace have since led 



THE HAMILTON RIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 163 

separate expeditions through the same country. Travel- 
ling inland to Lake Michikamau, thence down the George 
River to Ungava Bay, Mr. Wallace returned by dog- 
sleigh in the winter, skirting with his teams the entire 
Labrador coast. Both expeditions have been described 
by these travellers in their well-known books. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 
By W. T. Grenfell 

The fishery as it exists in Labrador at the present day 
is confined practically to Newfoundlanders, Labrador 
settlers, or " livyeres," as they are called, Eskimo, Americans 
from Massachusetts and Maine, and a few Canadians from 
the Maritime provinces. Of the Basques only a few tiled 
floors, and the debris of the bones of whales that were cap- 
tured, remain. These bones are still fished up at Red 
Bay in the Strait of Belle Isle and are used for dog-sledge 
shoes. Biscay ans and Bretons are represented by a wild 
growth of the small leek or hive, which once flourished 
in their well-cared-for vegetable patches. Jean Jacques 
and Antoine Perrault still fish on the coast, but speak the 
homeliest Labrador and are innocent of anything French, 
even as on the Canadian Labrador Rob Roy McGregor and 
Angus McNab know nothing but French patois. 

The Canadians are represented by their telegraph lines, 
lighthouses, and steam tenders. An occasional sick French 
Canadian finds his way to the small hospitals on the coast. 
Germany has at Nain a consul, a Moravian missionary 
bishop, whom, in 1907, a man-of-war came in and saluted. 
Words lacking in the Eskimo language have been supplied 
from the German. Tosten Andersens and Donald Camp- 

164 



THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 165 

bells from Norway and Scotland came out with the Hudson's 
Bay Fur Trading Company, and have left a plentiful 
progeny to represent them in this generation. One Jersey 
firm still has a fishing-room. Stone fish-drying bournes, 
brick chimneys, and occasional panelled doors testify to 
the excellent scale on which the enterprising men of Jersey 
once carried on the fishery so far from their own sunny 
homes. Their influence in doing things must have been 
very great. But with one or two exceptions there is to- 
day nothing to compare with the relatively fine style in 
which all their arrangements were carried out, and their 
men housed. These businesses have long ago passed into 
the hands of Newfoundland firms. 

The fishery of Blanc Sablon is perhaps the one pursued 
on the largest scale. It has holdings also at Greenley 
Island and Forteau. The enterprise of the Honourable 
Captain Sam Blandford added largely to its fame and 
efficiency, for he annually hired at great expense two large 
steamers in which he pushed as far north as Cape Chidley, 
to add a second chance to each voyage. 

Canadian fishing vessels visiting Labrador from the lower 
provinces are fewer than twenty years ago. Americans 
from Maine are more numerous. These, the finest fishing 
vessels by far that come amongst us, are always welcome. 
Their crews are a generous, open-handed crowd of men, 
thorough fishermen, and splendidly fitted out. Our own 
humble vessels look poor and sorry beside them. Only 
for one thing do we regret their advent, and that is due 
to their indifference to what we consider the laws of God. 
They go fishing and working on Sundays among our people, 
who, though poorer and far more needy of material wealth, 



166 LABRADOR 

are wise enough to know that life does not consist in the 
abundance of things man possesses. The joy of life on 
our coast comes of a peace of mind due to a real faith in 
God's fatherhood and our sonship, and from every high 
ideal realized on that premise. Without any theories it 
is the simplest " simple life." There is no room in Labrador 
for persons affected with the " dementia of owning things." 
If ever by elimination of their faith or by the introduction 
of the " habits of civilization" our people are deprived of 
that faith, life on the coast would be little short of a purga- 
tory to be endured. So strongly do our people feel on this 
matter of keeping Sunday strictly for rest that one of our 
laws runs that "no person shall, between the hours of 
twelve o'clock on Saturday night, and twelve o'clock on 
Sunday night, take or catch in any manner whatsoever, 
any herring, caplin, squid, or any other bait fish, or set or 
put out any contrivance whatsoever for taking them," — 
just such a law as prevailed one hundred years ago about 
salmon-catching in Ireland. Oddly enough, the law does 
not prevent catching the cod themselves, so we cannot 
prevent the long lines being hauled by our cousins from 
" civilization." When remonstrated with, however, they 
have almost always shown enough good feeling to give way 
to the wishes and customs of our people. 

The first of the fleet that leaves for Labrador sets out as 
early as the end of April. Those from the outports have 
still, owing to the unfortunate centralization of trade at 
St. John's, to repair first almost to the very extreme south 
of Newfoundland for supplies, and thence to leave for the 
north again. The southern vessels that come out of the 
winter ice early frequently find time to do some coasting 



THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 167 

before leaving for Labrador, and will carry loads of lumber, 
etc., to the capital. But this cannot be done by those who 
desire to make two cargoes at the fishing-grounds or by 
those who live in northern ports. Their vessels scarcely 
get out of the winter ice early enough. 

In Canadian waters the trap berths are leased to the 
same parties year after year by the government, who 
charge so much per fathom for the " leading" net. There 
is thus no great incentive to be down on that part of the 
coast too early. 

On the part of the Labrador coast which is under New- 
foundland jurisdiction, the first comer takes the best berths. 
This led to such unnecessarily early starts, with the suffer- 
ing involved and risks incurred from pushing down among 
the floe-ice, that laws were made preventing berths being 
claimed till a certain date, according to the latitude. 
Any net set before that time is not only taken up, but 
the owner is fined. Every year, however, numerous dis- 
putes and quarrels arise from the eagerness to be sure of 
the choice of places, and never a season passes without 
some being brought to the travelling magistrate for settle- 
ment. 

Some fishermen, without trying for more than one voy- 
age, go direct to the spot of their choice, however long they 
will have to wait. These men, though living on their 
vessels, will always be found in the same places. Their 
schooners at anchor might almost be marked on the chart. 
These men, such as the Whites of Twillingate, the Milleys, 
the Lansons, the Barbours, etc., are almost always success- 
ful men. 

Most of the schooners, however, are obliged to wander 



168 LABRADOR 

about, looking everywhere for "good tucks" of fish, and 
often so anxious to get the fish quickly that they leave the 
very places that later turn out to be best, only to find no 
others and so go home empty or " clean." 

These wandering schooners are called " green fish" 
catchers, and when they have taken their "fare," or when 
their time is "runned up," they come south, pick up the 
freighters they left, and carry them to their homes. Of 
late, however, more "make," or dry, their fish at the har- 
bour, where their freighters are doing the same thing. 
Though curing seems an easy matter, it involves much work 
and infinite patience. At home the gardens left in the 
spring sorely need tending now, and every man is anxious 
to be getting ready for the winter. Yet often for a week 
at a time, wet and cold days prevent any work being done. 
So valuable are fine days that a certain medicine was ad- 
vertised along the coast as a guarantee to "cure all" and 
to " give eight fine fish days " to any one buying five dollars' 
worth. 

The actual number of the vessels visiting Labrador I am 
unable to obtain, — probably one thousand each year. 
Every year quite a number go down that neither "clear" 
nor " register" at the customs-houses. About twenty thou- 
sand persons, all told, constitute the summer exodus from 
Newfoundland. 

One or two steamers have been used in the Labrador cod- 
fishery of recent years, but the people are strongly preju- 
diced against their introduction. They have seen the 
steamers supplant the schooners entirely for catching seals. 
They have seen any chance of large returns pass entirely 
out of reach of the small fisherman. Moreover, they be- 



THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 169 

lieve that the seals are being killed out. As yet, however, 
it has not been possible to get a law prohibiting the use of 
steam fishing-vessels sanctioned in the Upper House of the 
Legislature. It should be added that laws relating to the 
fishery are, all together, very few, and the total number of 
cases where trouble arises from all causes, when added up, 
are so small as to be almost negligible. The use of steamers 
to bring fishermen and their families to the fishery and 
back again is greatly to be desired. 

His Excellency, Sir William MacGregor, in the report 
issued in 1906, after his official visit to the coast, says: 
"The difference in conduct between the present generation 
of Labrador fishermen and the banditti, or ' irregular,' 
crews that formerly frequented it, forms, perhaps, one of 
the most striking contrasts that could be found in the 
annals of Justice." He further states that " the administra- 
tion of justice in Labrador is now so easy as to be, perhaps, 
without any precedent in any other country." He de- 
scribes our fishermen as being " phenomenally law-abiding." 
This is certainly my experience, after acting as magistrate 
on the coast for the past twenty years. 

The greatest drawback to the Labrador fishery has been, 
and still is, the want of proper communication. A small 
steamer, which is used for seal-hunting in the spring, makes 
ten trips each year. She is supposed to complete each 
trip in a fortnight, but as she has ninety ports of call to 
make, fully fifteen hundred miles to steam, is loaded with 
freight, and has fog, ice, and bad storms to contend with, 
she is frequently unable to keep within several days of her 
schedule time. With a captain second to none for pluck, 
and acquainted with the coast as probably no other man is, 



170 LABRADOR 

she still loses time. Day and night, when possible, she 
travels, but the scarcity of lights, the miserable survey, 
and the absence of artificial assistance to enter harbours, 
leave no question that she has far more work than she can 
accomplish. 

The passenger traffic alone is far more than she is able 
properly to undertake. The improved conditions of the 
fishery enable fishermen to get cash to pay for passages 
home by steamer so as to save time in the autumn. Thus, 
so many travel that even the available floor space is at 
times all too small for those crowding aboard. On some 
trips the gangway has had to be kept up to prevent more 
passengers coming aboard. For care, courage, courtesy, 
and efforts to please, the crew of the Labrador mail vessel 
cannot be beaten; but they cannot create space. The 
irregularities thus caused and the uncertainty as to the 
time of her arrival are also a great source of loss of time 
and money. Moreover, considering the importance of the 
fishery to the country, one mail per fortnight is not nearly 
enough. 

Five Marconi stations have been placed on the coast, 
and these are of very great value. They cover two hun- 
dred miles of coast, but do not yet connect with New- 
foundland, and only very indirectly with anywhere. When 
the Canadian station on Belle Isle is working, then Labra- 
dor can talk with the outside world via Canada. But none 
of these stations is opened except during the summer 
months. The power of the most southern station at 
Battle Harbour has been greatly increased and prac- 
tically has put us now in touch with the outside world. 



THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 171 

In the wireless system, the problem of communication 
in the Arctics and subarctic regions finds a solution. The 
drifting ice, whether as pan or resistless berg, is almost 
prohibitive of submarine cables. The immense bays, 
with their endless indraughts, make land wires out of the 
question. 

With commendable zeal, and with great success, the 
Canadians have succeeded in running a wire all the way 
from Quebec along the north shore of the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence to the Straits. Unfortunately the line ends 
at Chateau, twenty-eight miles from Battle Harbour, 
where the terminal Marconi station is situated. 

In winter, residence in Labrador is specially discour- 
aged by lack of communication, and the permanent 
population, except around the newly established mills, 
is decreasing steadily. The existing arrangement of one 
or, at most, two mails carried by dogs is not sufficient to 
meet the needs of a population of English-speaking 
people during a whole winter. 

I am a complete optimist with regard to the 
future. Steffanson has written in his " Friendly Arctic " 
how mistaken people are regarding the cold at the 
sea levels. Our latitude is that of England, our al- 
titude nil. A chain of wireless stations has been es- 
tablished in summer, and as industry develops is avail- 
able all the year. 

Exclusive of a school grant of $2000, the total appropri- 
ations for Labrador are under $30,000 per annum. Twenty 
thousand dollars of this is for the summer mail steamer 
and the Marconi stations ; $2000 is for collecting revenue 



172 LABRADOR 

on the coast. All the rest is spent on summer post-offices, 
and providing for sick fishermen. Five hundred dollars 
a year appears to be the amount granted to make Labra- 
dor habitable in winter. 

As the revenue from its inhabitants direct is certainly 
$150,000 per annum, and the indirect revenue from the 
fishery so large, this does not seem fair. The Labrador 
people must purchase every supply from Newfoundland, 
from a rifle, a trap, a net, to flour, pork, and potatoes. 
I have seen potatoes turned back home from the Cana- 
dian boundary at Blanc Sablon because they were grown 
in Prince Edward Island, and the taxation was far too high 
for the settlers at Forteau and Red Bay to be able to 
afford them. Yet they could get no potatoes from New- 
foundland, could grow none, suffered from hunger for want 
of vegetables in spring, and some were being fed every 
year on government flour during the long winter months. 

The testimony of hundreds of my friends who live in 
Labrador, among them men who have lived in the United 
States, England, Scotland, Canada, Norway, and elsewhere, 
is that Labrador is by no means a bad country to settle 
in, but it is handicapped by having too little government 
encouragement given to people to live there. 

The reindeer project, backed only by the Canadian 
government and by private friends, I shall leave to another 
chapter. 

One other great drawback to settling is the impossibility 
of either getting grants of land or buying land with good 
title in Labrador. This partly arises from the unsettled 
question of ownership. For nobody knows the boundary 
between Newfoundland and Canada. Grants of timber 



THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 173 

lands have been made to Canadian firms in Sandwich Bay 
and Hamilton Inlet, covering about two thousand square 
miles in all. Grants to fishing firms have apparently been 
made to Baine, Johnston & Company at Battle, to Isaac- 
Mercer at Long Tickle, to Job Brothers at Blanc Sablon 
and Indian Harbour, and to a few others at other points. 

The policy of the Newfoundland government has always 
been in theory to leave the land free to any one, so that 
when one man leaves it another may make use of his former 
situation. Presumably this is on the assumption that 
nothing of value will be left behind. But though no legal 
conveyance has been made, men who fish any particular 
place, and even move a stone to " spread fish on," will claim 
that place, though they have not been using it for years, 
and the courts at home have upheld them. It leaves the 
land about the harbours in a very anomalous and undesirable 
condition. There are fishermen anxious to come and settle, 
there is land unused, and with no marks on it ; yet either 
some one refuses to allow them to settle or they dare not 
settle for fear some one may arise who will some day eject 
them. Several of these cases have come before me as 
magistrate on the coast. 

Labrador has no representation, and no one is appointed 
to look after its interests. The Governor's Report for 1906 
does not put the matter one iota too strongly. The follow- 
ing paragraph taken from it is very significant, when the 
varied experience of its author in other out-of-the-way 
parts of the world is taken into consideration: — 

"If the difficulties of representation are considered to be 
too great, then there remains the obvious alternative of ap- 
pointing a minister, or, at least, a secretary for Labrador, 



174 LABBADOE 

whose sole and special executive duty would be to study all 
the questions in connection with that country. It may be 
stated here at once that the proper development of the 
Labrador coast cannot take place unless one or other of 
the above suggestions is adopted, or some other more or 
less similar arrangement is provided, such as an annual 
visit to the coast of a Minister of the Crown." 

Only one such has ever visited Labrador, and that one, 
the Honourable Minister of Fisheries, accompanied Sir 
William MacGregor on his trip in 1906. 

Education in both Newfoundland and Labrador is an- 
other very difficult problem. It is rendered almost im- 
possible to solve, owing to the denominational system of 
schools. A recent visitor, writing in an American paper, 
expressed himself as follows, and his view I entirely agree 
with : — 

" If any one desires to study the working out of an ex- 
clusively denominational education to its logical result, a 
visit to Newfoundland will supply the materials. The 
island is a poor and sparsely settled country; yet its edu- 
cation is completely in the hands of the churches, the 
only uniformity attempted being the preparation of exam- 
ination papers by a central board. In the smaller settle- 
ments there may be a Methodist, an Anglican, a Roman 
Catholic, and even a Salvation Army separate school, and 
each denomination, except the Congregationalist, has its 
own college in St. John's, not one of which has yet got 
beyond the point of secondary education. This is the 
logical outcome of the denominational idea. It results 
in the maintenance of separate camps in every village, 
and bids fair to postpone forever any real unification and 
assimilation of the people." 



THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 175 

The best educated people in the country at present are 
the Eskimo. Almost without exception they can read 
and write. Many can play musical instruments, share 
in part singing, and are well able to keep accounts, and 
know the value of things. These accomplishments, entirely 
and solely due to the Moravian missionaries, have largely 
helped them to hold their own in trade, a faculty for want 
of which almost every aboriginal race is apt to suffer so 
severely. 

I have known an Eskimo called in to read and to write 
a letter for a Newfoundland fisherman, and I have had 
more than once to ask one to help me by playing our own 
harmonium for us at a service, because not one of a large 
audience could do so. I have heard more than one Eskimo 
stand up and deliver an excellent impromptu speech. Read- 
ing the Newfoundland Blue Books, reporting the numbers 
able to read and write in Labrador, I acquired an entirely 
erroneous estimate of the people's accomplishments in 
those directions. Our white population is still very largely 
illiterate. Some headway has, however, been made of 
late years, and literature and loan libraries distributed 
through the Labrador Mission are now accessible all along 
the coast, and are creating a love of reading. 

There are practically no alcoholic liquors sold in Labra- 
dor. Not a licensed house exists. If liquor is sold at 
all, it is in very small quantities and clandestinely in what 
we know as " shebeens." To obtain convictions for 
breaches of the really very stringent liquor laws is not 
easy. In many years' cruising the coast, I have only been 
able to convict five "shebeeners," and I will candidly 
admit that I lose no opportunities. 



176 LABRADOR 

Since prohibition came into force for the whole colony 
the illicit supplies sent through the mails have practically 
ceased. The "cash on delivery" trouble has been elim- 
inated. 

Foreign vessels are still unfortunately in the habit of 
giving away rum to the fishermen who load them with 
fish. The total quantity drunk, however, is very small 
indeed. Thousands of our fishermen are absolute ab- 
stainers on principle, and a very strong anti-liquor senti- 
ment prevails almost universally. The results are ob- 
vious in the fact that we have not one policeman stationed 
along the whole coast ; not one among twenty-five thou- 
sand people. We have no penitentiary, and there has 
not been, to my knowledge, a conviction for drunkenness. 
During sixteen years I have personally not seen one fisher- 
man drunk on the Labrador Coast. It is very different 
among the North Sea fishermen. Alcohol has there 
been the downfall of some of the best men. It has cost 
the lives of more than one of my own friends. It has 
ruined and starved many families I have known and 
loved. 

A careful study of the health conditions of the coast by 
the doctors of our staff all these years has shown that there 
is no need for liquor whatever in these subarctic climates ; 
that, on the contrary, the first man to go down in hard 
physical conditions is almost always the drinking man. 
Among men on the sea the dangers from its use are 
enormously enhanced. As a method of making money, 
I can conceive of few that are so despicable, so inhuman, 
as this liquor traffic ! 

The complete absence of artificial class distinctions on 



THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 177 

the coast is one of the most refreshing experiences a visitor 
can have. A man may have fustian instead of broad- 
cloth, sea-boots instead of patent-leather boots, a blue 
guernsey instead of the latest cut of frock-coat, but a man 
is a man in Labrador for all that, — independent and free 
from all self-consciousness, which quite falsely humbles 
one man in the presence of his fellow-men. Thus I have 
had guests many times staying with us in our house, waited 
on at our table, and then quite naturally adjourning to the 
kitchen and feeling absolutely at home and unembarrassed 
there with the servants, without any false contempt for 
others, just as a Ruskin or a Tolstoi, or the Christ would 
have it. 

Yet the Labradorman, on the other hand, has none of 
that offensive familiarity which would ignore the differ- 
ences that are the outcome of position and training. He 
does not so much care who your father and grandfather 
were, or the quality of your clothes. But he does not try 
to force that fact on you in the manner said to be the pre- 
rogative of " walking delegates." 

Those who have visited the Labrador fisherman have, 
on social grounds, learnt to love him for his simple virtues, 
his hospitality, his faith, his truthfulness, and his loyalty, — 
even as Ian Maclaren taught us to love the people of Drum- 
tochty. Nor can you be long in the fisherman's company 
without feeling this. 

The public health of Labrador has practically been a 
matter of chance. Houses are not drained. Few have 
even outside closets, much less one in the house. There 
are no sanitary officers. Very few residents have ever been 
vaccinated. Until recently they have had no teaching 



178 LABRADOR 

as to the dangers of infectious diseases, and especially 
how to deal with and avoid tuberculosis. Consumption 
is the main enemy of these people who live here in one 
of the purest atmospheres in the world. But it is fostered 
and propagated in every possible way by the customs of 
the people and by their poverty. The total number of 
residents is now about four thousand, inclusive of thirteen 
hundred Eskimo. In spite of new mills and other new 
industries recently introduced, the number is not increas- 
ing. This is due partly to the fact that some return to 
Newfoundland to benefit by the schools and other ad- 
vantages, or to escape starvation or the isolation that 
arises from no line of communication in the winter. Those 
residents, who make this journey, invariably tell me they 
would greatly prefer to remain on the coast in winter if 
it were possible. 

The lack of increase is partly due, also, to the want of 
care of the young. I have no statistics to show the rela- 
tive mortality in childhood. I know it to be great. The 
families are comparatively large. I call to mind one of 
thirteen, one of fourteen, and several of seven and eight. 
Most men marry young. Bachelors are very few on the 
coast. A knowledge of the cheaper food-stuffs and how 
to use them would be a great help. Thus, corn meal, 
oatmeal, and rice are seldom used. The average age 
attained is certainly low. The older English and Scotch 
settlers live and maintain their vitality much longer than 
those of the succeeding generations. They also hold their 
own much better in the battle with their environment. 
One man proudly told me, " Father is eighty-two and hasn't 
a kink in him." 




Eskimo Hunter 



THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 179 

The sicknesses of the coast are not indigenous. In the 
past seventeen years there have been grippe ; a few cases 
of small-pox, imported by a schooner from the Gulf; 
scarlet fever brought from Newfoundland in a steamer; 
one small outbreak of diphtheria in the Straits on the 
arrival of the summer visitors; and in summer a few 
sporadic cases of typhoid. 

The Eskimo brought back from the Chicago Exposi- 
tion typhoid of a very virulent type, which killed several 
hundred of them; and, from the Buffalo Exposition, diph- 
theria. An epidemic of grippe, complicated with pneu- 
monia and pericarditis, killed about sixty in the neigh- 
bourhood of Okkak. In my introduction I have already 
mentioned the terrible influenza epidemic of three years 
ago. The worst enemy of the Eskimo is, again, tubercu- 
losis, and from that in one form or another most of the 
people die. The disease is entirely due to ignorance, 
neglect, and poverty. 

On the other hand, so healthful is the country that I have 
no hesitation in recommending it for neurotics, or even to 
persons with disposition for tuberculosis. In winter the 
dry cold, in spring the low latitude and reflected sunshine, 
and in summer the clear cold, bracing air, are great 
recommendations . 

When speaking of the people of the coast, one is apt to 
overlook those who are represented in Labrador only by 
agents in their various businesses. Were it not for their 
enterprise and courage, the Labrador fishery would be lost 
to the human race. Labrador owes them many debts, 
and the people almost owe their existence to them. 
To-day the merchants carrying on business in Labrador 



180 LABRADOR 

are mostly residents of St. John's. The largest outfitting 
firm for Labrador, especially of the greenfish catchers, 
is, however, that of Messrs. Ryan, of King's Cove. 
Nearly all the merchant firms interested in the bank fish- 
ing and the shore fishery elsewhere are represented. The 
largest single establishment at Blanc Sablon belongs to 
Messrs. Job Brothers & Company, a firm that for a hun- 
dred years has carried on the fishery business. The sec- 
ond largest station is Battle Harbour, the property of 
Messrs. Baine, Johnston & Company. Rorke & Sons of 
Carbonear own the old-established stations at Venison 
Tickle and Francis Harbour. Messrs. Harver & Com- 
pany are interested in Indian Harbour. Munn Brothers, 
of Harbour Grace, have built up a fine business at Shoal 
Bay and Snug Harbour. McCrea & Son, at Gready, 
carry on a very extensive business. Messrs. Kennedy, 
Bartlett, Jerrett, Clous ton and the Anglo-Newfoundland 
Company and others have all built shore stations and 
opened up fisheries in which every year they risk con- 
siderable sums of money. A cold storage plant has been 
installed at Packs Harbour and there also berries and 
cod are put up in tins. Labrador owes its developing 
utility to mankind largely to these enterprising men. 
They have met with varying fortune. Some have made 
successes. None has made a large fortune. Many have 
experienced great losses. When they come to balance 
the issues of their enterprise, they should not forget their 
greatest asset, — that their names are held in honour, 
and that gratitude to them is cherished in numerous 
hearts and homes along the ice-girt shore of the " lonely 
Labrador." 



THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 181 

The Hudson's Bay Company has long shared the fur- 
trade of the northeast coast with the Moravian Mission 
stations. The older of these two companies has a station 
in Davis Inlet, one of the most beautiful spots in eastern 
Labrador. The well-wooded sides of the inlet, the steeply 
rolling hills, the narrow, deep fiords branching away in many 
directions, the peace of the seldom ruffled waters, and the 
number and variety of the sea-birds inhabiting the bays 
during the summer, all lend Davis Inlet a kind of beauty 
unrivalled on the outer coast. Here the largest trade with 
the Montagnais Indians is pursued. Every winter and 
summer a band comes out with furs, deerskins, and parch- 
ment. A trifling reward is given by the company to any 
settler meeting the band and piloting them in his boat to 
the station. There they generally stay a few days barter- 
ing their "hunt" for ammunition, tobacco, and coloured 
handkerchiefs and cloths. There is some trade here also 
with Eskimo and half-breeds in salt trout and salmon. 
The head post of the Hudson's Bay Company is Rigolet 
in Hamilton Inlet, and from that place all orders are issued, 
all goods exported, and to and from that port their annual 
steamer plies, bringing the goods from London and carry- 
ing back the furs in the fall. She arrives generally in mid- 
July, coming out under sail and steam to economize fuel. 
She proceeds north to Ungava and to the bottom of Hud- 
son Bay, returning to pick up the summer's catch of sal- 
mon with the furs of the preceding winter. The name of 
her captain, rendered famous in Labrador by his innumer- 
able voyages safely accomplished, will be perpetuated in 
the channel through which he always passes on his way 
around Cape Chidley. It has been christened Gray Straits 
in his honour, 



182 LABRADOR 

If we steam up ninety miles farther along Hamilton 
Inlet, we reach the Northwest River station of this same 
company. From here they supply potatoes, carrots, cab- 
bages, and other vegetables of their own growing to the 
outside posts. It is beautifully situated at the mouth 
of a lonely salmon river, with a well-wooded background 
and a level-grassed, pebbly, and sandy beach in front. Here 
the Canadian party viewed the eclipse in 1905, and here the 
present Lord Strathcona, the grand old man of British 
North America, spent thirteen years of his early life. No 
place is better worth a visit. The vast quantities of fresh 
water pouring into the great Lake Melville make it quite 
warm, and bathing can be indulged in there as well as any- 
where in England. 

The station at Cartwright, the southernmost of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company stations, is the one, however, best 
known to visitors, and to the world also, from the famous 
journals of the founder. The entire people of that bay for 
long years depended on it for all their supplies, but now 
they trade also largely with the southerners at their summer 
stations at Gready and Pax Harbour, and also with the 
French firm of Revillon Freres, who built a station in the 
bay in 1907. This firm has been spreading its stations 
wherever the Hudson's Bay Company carries on operations, 
and metaphorically have, in each place, put down their 
trading-post in the latter's back yard. A few years ago 
this would have originated feuds and strife, as in the famous 
days of the Northwest Company in Canada. But now-a- 
days there seems no personal animosity, and the various 
factors can even meet and smoke together the pipe of peace. 
Revillon Freres have a station also at Northwest River. 



THE PEOPLE OF THE COAST 183 

Their advent on the coast has marked a considerable rise 
in the price paid the people for furs. 

In the winter months the fur-traders make long sledge 
journeys along the coast, buying the skins caught, or lay- 
ing embargoes on them. The Rigolet dog-teams and the 
Nachvak dog-teams have for years been famous along the 
coast. The former, with their well-known owner, James 
D. Fraser, here probably reach the acme of dog-driving, 
while the famous Ford family have, between them, carried 
the mail three hundred and fifty miles each way over these 
barren, uninhabited shores, winter after winter, where no 
man lives and no houses shelter them — across mountain 
fastnesses, over glaciated passes, and the still more dan- 
gerous sea-ice, year after year, without serious accident. 
The mail starts at Fort Chimo in Ungava Bay, then round 
and along the Labrador coast to Davis Inlet. The mail 
crosses the land to Nachvak Bay, and so on over a stretch 
of fifteen hundred miles to Quebec. 

The life of a Hudson's Bay factor in Labrador does not 
offer all the joys of civilization, but it offers a field to develop 
courage, muscle, resourcefulness, and self-reliance to an 
eminent degree. It makes men who shoot straight, fear 
nothing, and live hard. It offers the simple life, with its 
many advantages, and it breeds a hospitality, a brotherli- 
ness to one's kind, a readiness to stand by any one in dis- 
tress, that, in our complex life in cities and even villages, 
we rarely find ourselves called on to exercise. Never has 
a visitor travelled our coast, but his heart has gone out 
equally to all the brave men of these two great organiza- 
tions, the Moravian Missions and the Hudson's Bay 
Company. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE INDIANS 
By William B. Cabot 

The Indians of Labrador are all of the family stock 
known to ethnology as the Algonquian, which in its day 
occupied a vast area of the continent. From the Carolinas 
to the Eskimo shores of Hudson's Strait and from the 
Atlantic to the Mississippi and far to the northwest, the 
maps of the present day are dotted with the place-names 
of one group or another of this vanishing family. These 
names, one of the chief legacies of the Algic tribes, remain 
a sign-manual of their occupation of the soil. Their great 
territory was shared by almost none but the Iroquoian 
tribes, and these in limited numbers. 

Beyond the Mississippi were the various and generally 
unfriendly races of the plains. Westward from Hudson 
Bay and to the far north were the Athabascans, different 
in physiognomy and of another linguistic system. South- 
ward were various tribes, chiefly Muskogean, although 
names of the Algonquian form are not wholly wanting 
over most of the southern area to the Gulf. 

The northern groups are closely related. The Montagnais, 
or Mountaineers, of the southern Labrador talk easily with 
the Nascaupees of the northern and eastern Crees; these 
latter in turn with others to the west, and so on to the Rocky 
Mountains. The differences are only of dialect. To the 
southward it is otherwise; the St. Lawrence marks so 

184 



THE INDIANS 185 

distinct a division of language that existing tribes cannot 
converse in Indian; and as observed by the writer upon 
the meeting of a Montagnais with an Abnaki acquaintance 
on the winter trail, conversation must proceed in some 
foreign language — in this instance in French. The Indians 
of the Labrador estimate that as many as half of the people 
speak no language but their own. The presence of white 
blood is largely evident in the southwest, adjacent to the 
settlements and the upper gulf;' and many who are counted 
Indians might, but for the saving effect of a hunting life 
inland, be reckoned as white rather than red. 
Low writes : — 

"The most northern tribe has a tradition that their 
people originally lived far to the south, and it is prob- 
able that they were driven northward from the country 
about the St. Lawrence by the Iroquois, about the time 
of the first settlement of Canada, by the French. There 
are many traditions about these wars among the northern 
Indians, and it is surprising to what distances the Iroquois 
followed them, into the middle of Labrador, and up the east 
coast of Hudson Bay to the neighbourhood of the mouth 
of the Big River in north lat. 54°. As the Crees retreated 
before the Iroquois, they in turn displaced the Eskimo, 
who at one time occupied the eastern and southern portions 
of the peninsula as far as Eskimo Bay on the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence and all the territory about Hudson Bay. These 
wars terminated when the Eskimo became supplied with 
firearms, and are now traditions of the distant past; but 
the memories still live, and the Eskimo and Indians, al- 
though never engaging in open hostilities, have a mutual 
hatred and never intermarry. The northern Indians 
still regard with fear the descendants of the once fierce 
Iroquois, and their name is used to frighten children." 



186 LABRADOR 

In the nearer regions, service at guiding and with survey- 
ing or exploring parties as voyageurs is resorted to con- 
siderably by men of more or less Indian blood, but the dark 
Indian accepts such employment rather reluctantly. His 
light bodily frame, in fact, is not well suited to heavy 
work. The voyageurs of the north par excellence are Scotch 
or French mixed breeds, men not infrequently of unusual 
bone and strength. Although Dr. Low regards the modern 
Montagnais as rather improved in sturdiness by the long 
infiltration of white blood which began with the days of 
the Coureurs des Bois and early fur trade, the slighter 
build usual in the northern group is tolerably common. 

Occasional association with modern operations along 
the nearer borders has not much changed the inland life 
of the people. The interior is still an Indian possession, 
where no white man makes his home, and the only law is 
the immemorial code of lodge and hunting-ground. The 
whole inland, and indeed almost all the coasts, remains 
given over to the hunting life. 

The Indians, always diminishing in numbers, may be 
reckoned at some three or four thousand at the present 
time. Of these the Montagnais, who are all tributary to 
Gulf or Saguenay trading-stations, make up more than half. 
It is difficult to arrive at a census of such a wandering 
people, for in one year and another some of them appear 
successively upon coasts remotely apart. The lists of 
names at such far-distant trading-stations are rarely com- 
pared with each other, while the names of the Indians are 
somewhat subject to change, and at best are not always 
easy to identify. 

About the great lakes of the central area the people 



THE INDIANS 187 

meet as may happen during the hunting season, and ex- 
change their unwritten news; slight, indeed, is the occur- 
rence, from side to side of the country, which escapes those 
lodge-fire gatherings. Families hidden here and there 
in remote valleys may wait for their news, perforce, until 
late in the spring, when at various rendezvous they group 
together for the down-river voyages ; or even until the sum- 
mer meeting on the reserve, where all subjects have their 
final review ; but on the far lake levels of the high interior, 
the hunting-place of the strong and skilful, their network 
of communication is seldom long broken. There, about 
the central area, gather the rivers which flow to the four 
coasts, and there the people converge. In the words of 
John Bastian of Pointe Bleue, "At Kaniapishkau you 
meet Indians from all shores." 

Almost all the Montagnais families leave their hunting- 
grounds when the fur becomes poor —technically, "com- 
mon " — in the spring. About the last of the fur-hunting 
comes with the bear-hunt, late in May, when the snow has 
settled down and the bears begin to move about after their 
winter's sleep. By the last of June the people are gathered 
upon the reserves along the Gulf and on the Saguenay. 
Sometimes a family remains inland two years for some rea- 
son, most often because of a light catch of fur. In such an 
event some neighbour usually takes down what skins there 
may be, and brings up purchases accordingly in the fall. 
There is not much trouble about subsistence in the summer 
for those who stay in. Fish, taken almost wholly by net 
and spear, are nearly unfailing, and there are some ducks, 
geese, and small animals, besides eggs and berries ; enough 
all told to get along on, although the large game fail. 



188 LABRADOR 

Beaver, bear, and lynx, with the caribou, may be reckoned 
under the latter description. 

The latter days of June — Nipish Piishum, the "Leaf 
Moon " — find the country pretty well vacated by the out- 
goers. July — Shetan, or " Ste. Anne Moon," for Saint 
Anne is their special saint — is dedicated to church observ- 
ances and quiet life at the shore. The Oblate Fathers give 
religious instruction from the missions on the reserves, and 
the younger Indians are taught to write their own language. 
Canoes are built ; a little near-by fishing is carried on ; the 
season on the whole is one of festivity. 

The physical condition of the people is apt to deterio- 
rate in summer, for the elements of the reserve life are 
largely foreign to the native habit. There is crowding 
into small houses and cabins ; doubtful drainage, water, 
and food ; more whiskey than ought to be, and the ordinary 
diseases of civilization. At Pointe Bleue, on Lake St. John, 
rheumatism is prevalent, and the constitutional instability 
of the mixed race makes for consumption and the minor dis- 
eases always present in the large town of Roberval near by. 

The month of August is known as O-po-o Piishum, 
"Moon of Flight," for then the young ducks begin to fly. 
They are welcome for the kettle during the canoe journeys 
to the hunting-grounds. As the month goes on, a busier air 
comes over the reserves; trading is completed, and the 
refitting brought to a close. One by one the families 
slip away, until at last only those who hunt comparatively 
near are left. By the last of September, Ushakau Piishum, 
when the "caribou horns harden," most of the cabins 
are empty, the tents have vanished, and few but the very 
helpless are left upon the reserve. 



THE INDIANS 189 

Near Bersimis, some two hundred and twenty miles below 
Quebec, three large rivers converge to the coast, and all 
receive their customary families in the fall. The Mani- 
quagan is the chief of these, being ascended during recent 
years by as many as seventy families. Near and parallel 
with this is the more difficult Outardes River, named 
by the Indians Pletipi, " Partridge- water," from its chief 
lake. Many of its hunters ascend the Maniquagan some 
two hundred miles to the lakes, and cross to their own river 
by a toilsome portage route. A few pass directly up the 
Outardes. With the burden of provisions now necessary 
to the hunting of these rivers, the way up such a difficult 
stream as the Pletipi becomes peculiarly hard. Still, for 
these people, whatever their age or condition, there is 
little choice, — inland they must go, to their own lands. 

A party on the way up river was camped above the first 
portage a few years ago when the writer passed down. 
A bright old withered woman appeared at the landing, 
her husband, older and blind, standing close with his staff. 
Two children showed their heads from the bushes near 
the piled supplies, peering at the strange canoe. A small 
dog barked not far away, a shot followed, and soon, carry- 
ing a partridge, a young man came from that direction 
and joined the conversation which our Indians had begun. 
They were going to the large lake Pletipi on the head of 
the river. It would take a long time, all the fall, and they 
thought game to live on would be more plenty along the 
Pletipishtuk than on the other river where so many families 
travelled. They were cheerful enough, though with virtu- 
ally only one effective pair of arms to fend for all. 

In a country of such scanty resources and physical 



190 LABRADOR 

obstacles, these movements, involving the young and the 
feeble, could not be undertaken but for the intimate local 
knowledge of the people. Most of the Indians are actually 
born upon hunting-lands handed down from their ancestors, 
and at an early age each knows his own ground as the 
farmer boy knows his father's farm. He has made the yearly 
passage of his river, down and back, from infancy. High 
water or low, he knows its every eddy and turn. As to 
an inn ahead, he plans his day's travel to some fishing pool 
or lake; or to the blueberry lands, where will be berries 
surely, and bears perhaps. He camps in no chance place, 
but where the beach is clean, the bank not too high or steep, 
where wood and boughs and water are to hand, and always, 
when may be, where the view is sightly and wide. Thus 
he continues his way, every resource of the barren land 
made his. Illness and death sometimes befall, want and 
misfortune tax too often the fortitude of this ever disci- 
plined race, but sooner or later the plateau level is gained, 
the lake region begins, and the portages along the narrow- 
ing streams become short and easy. The great falls are 
behind, their jarring thunder fades in time from the ear; 
the roar of the long rapids is over ; the shut-in river valley 
has given place to the broad sunshine of the table-land. 
Well content are they who have safely come. The long 
toil is over; they are glad to be away from the reserve; 
above all, they are once more upon the blue lakes of their 
own hunting-ground. 

The journeys inland have become increasingly hard as 
the game resources have diminished. The carrying in of 
supplies involves great labour on the long portages. A crew 
of picked voyageurs moves slowly, even though taking no 




The Prayer-leader' at the Ragged Islands 



THE INDIANS 191 

time to hunt, and unencumbered by children or old persons. 
On the Long Portage of the Bersimis, Low's exploring party 
spent a full week. It appears on his map as the " ten- 
mile portage/' and passes over a mountain more than one 
thousand feet high. 

In the earlier days of the fur trade, these movements were 
by no means general with the people, partly because the 
comparatively few articles then required in trade were 
easily transported, and the trading was done at some dis- 
tance inland. In the nearer regions, formerly the best 
hunting districts, fur is now scarce and large game almost 
wholly wanting. Previous to white occupation of the 
shores, it is probable that long journeys were not often 
undertaken for any purpose, while those performed were 
favoured by a game supply which was usually ample. 
The seasonal migrations of the recent period bear very 
heavily upon the young and feeble, and must seriously 
affect the current mortality figures. 

The periods of actual straits and starvation usually 
occur late in the winter, when reserve supplies are ex- 
hausted. It would be hard now to name a district of the 
peninsula where subsistence upon the country the year 
through is reasonably dependable. 

The prime disaster to the game resources was not due to 
improved firearms or such access of direct destruction as 
swept away the buffalo and other western game, but was 
incidental to a succession of tremendously destructive 
forest fires. From the Gulf to the barrens, three-fourths 
of the country has been laid waste within the white period, 
the thin mat of organic soil being burned wholly away over 
large areas, leaving only rock and sterile subsoil. The great 



192 LABRADOR 

fire of the Saguenay ran from west of Quebec some seven 
hundred miles to the Romaine River, sweeping the country 
from the Gulf to the height of land. Such damp grounds 
as were spared could sustain little game, and afforded slight 
protection from the hunters to such as survived. The 
catastrophe, so far as resources for the Indians are con- 
cerned, was nearly complete. 

Earlier still the plateau had become largely non-support- 
ing. Hind, writing in the sixties of the country about 
the Moisie, gives a saddening account of the misfortunes 
of the Nascaupees. Many were forced to the shores. 
There food was to be had> but the change to the damp of 
the Gulf from the activity and sunshine of the high interior 
brought its natural consequences, and consumption and 
the unknown diseases of civilization soon brought their 
end. 

Where the soil remains, gradual replacement of the forest 
goes on, the higher ground most often turning to birch, 
with quaking asp, and the gravel river levels of the south- 
west to an open growth of Banksian pine, the ussishk of 
the Indians, and the cypres of the French habitants. In 
favourable places the original forestation of spruce and fir 
succeeds, if poorly, in reestablishing itself. 

The cause of fires is generally the carelessness of border 
whites, although Dr. Low's supposition that not a few have 
begun with " wandering Indians, careful only in their own 
hunting-grounds," is doubtless true enough. But it is to 
be remembered that the fire code of the real Indian is very 
rigid, and the fact that white advent found the country 
forested to the subarctic barrens tells its own tale. The 
people were far more numerous then, yet under their law 



THE INDIANS 193 

the woods were green. But for the coming of a careless 
race, they would be so now. 

Along the Gulf the principal trading-stations are Ber- 
simis, Seven Islands, Mingan, and St. Augustine. From 
Seven Islands the Moisie is the main highway to the interior, 
and several of its families make their hunts within two hun- 
dred miles of Ungava on eastern branches of the George. 
Nearly parallel with the Moisie is the St. Marguerite, or 
Tshimanipishtuk. Its principal western branch inter- 
locks with the Maniquagan. The network of Indian travel 
about and far beyond the heads of these rivers is intermi- 
nable. 

From the Gulf near Mingan, the hunters ascend the St. 
John, pass a difficult high portage to the Romaine, and 
proceed toward the Grand Falls region of the Hamilton. 
They know the lower Hamilton as the Winikapau Shibu, 
or " River of Willows," and the falls as Pitshetonau, "It 
steams," from the column of white vapour which is seen from 
a distance. Low gives the tradition of two maidens swept 
over the falls, who spend their time behind the falls dressing 
skins. The lower part of the Romaine is not navigated, 
and is perhaps unknown to the Indians of the present day. 
Its Indian name "Alimun," meaning difficult, has passed 
through a rearrangement of sounds unusual in the ad- 
justing of Indian names to French organs of speech. From 
"L' Alimun" to "La Romaine" the transition is easy, — sur- 
prisingly so, considering that no less a feat is involved than 
the introduction of the full rolling r into a language which 
has not the r-sound at all. 

In general, while the French learn readily enough to 
make practical use of the Indian dialects, they seem to 



194 LABRADOR 

have much more difficulty in the matter of correct articu- 
lation than do persons of English speech. Nevertheless 
the two races, the French and the Indian, are by tempera- 
ment rather notably acceptable to each other. It has been 
remarked that the Highland Scotch, in particular, learn the 
native dialects well and readily. This peculiarity seems 
more than an accident of linguistics, for the young High- 
landers brought over by the Hudson's Bay Company not 
only learn the language easily, but marry forthwith, fall 
into the life, and show in their children as encouraging ex- 
amples of such combining of extreme elements, the very 
light and the deep brown, as may well be found. On the 
other hand, the young Englishmen brought over in the 
earlier period of the Hudson's Bay Company were a notable 
failure in adaptability to the conditions, remaining alien to 
the life and seeking usually a final escape from their sur- 
roundings. 

Analysis of the deeper affinities of the language must be 
left to the linguist ; superficially it does not appear to have 
a common origin with any of the European tongues. It 
must be supposed that articulation, at least, is affected by 
climate and mode of life, as is physiognomy as well in the 
case of dwellers upon wind-blown plains. A relation may 
exist between the mild climate of southern Europe and the 
prevailing use of the outer organs of speech by the Latin 
races. The rolling r and the mobile face are hardly to be 
associated with high latitudes. In the north, on the con- 
trary, it might be difficult to find any word in the Algon- 
quian, or in that very different language, the Eskimo, 
which could not be spoken clearly with the face immov- 
able. These are languages which can be used without 




Eskimo and Nascaupee Indians, Hudson Bay- 




Davis Inlet Montagnais 



THE INDIANS 195 

difficulty when the face is stiff with cold. It may be noted 
that the Scotch and English, whose relative facility in 
catching the Indian sounds has been remarked, have also 
a long inheritance of northern conditions. 

Eastward from Mingan the people travel the Natashquan, 
St. Augustine, and Eskimo rivers. Their lands are chiefly 
in the region between the Hamilton and the St. Lawrence. 
Southward from the Mealy Mountains of Hamilton Inlet 
and the Sandwich Bay coast lies an indefinite, unmapped 
area of high territory, partly barren, where large lakes 
supply the rough rivers passing north, east, and south. 
In winter, white or Eskimo-white hunters penetrate one 
or two hundred miles into this area. The Hamilton River 
also is hunted by the shore people. These go up in the 
fall in boats, returning on snow. The inland life of these 
shore-dwelling hunters is as little like that of the Indians 
as well may be. Their winter method is to take what 
supplies can be hauled on sleds by hand, set traps along their 
route, the length of which is determined somewhat by snow 
conditions, and take up the catch of fur on their return 
march. They are known as " planters"; their occupation 
is " furring." Cabins are built by some at strategic points, 
and these " tilts" may be taken as the sign of white blood 
in the land. The Indian, held to no base, uses the movable 
lodge only. The shore hunter is bound, his campaign 
limited, by his large dependence on transported provisions. 
If half-emancipated from, or better, only half-subjugated 
by, "the white man's burden," he lacks yet the full inherit- 
ance, the ferity, which saves existence to the Indian born. 
The broad difference between the two, the fur catcher and 
the Indian, is that between hunting and the hunting life. 



196 LABRADOR 

The white man goes hunting, his family protected in his 
absence ; the Indian, rarely separated from his family, takes 
the chances of the open for all. 

During late years, few Indians have been regular visitors 
on the eastern coast of the peninsula. For convenience 
to themselves, the Oblate Fathers have influenced the hunters 
who formerly traded at Hamilton Inlet to make the longer 
journey to Seven Islands. Irregularly a few northern 
Indians from George River have visited Davis Inlet post, 
as few as three coming down in one or two recent summers. 
The northern group turns rather toward Chimo on Un- 
gava Bay. In winter some numbers of the northern group 
may come to the east coast, but they do not bring their 
families unless under pressure of starvation, and their stay 
is brief. The number of lodges on the eastern side of the 
country depends on the movements of the caribou. These 
vary rather widely in the course of their migration, the 
main herd sometimes remaining south a year or two at a 
time. As already noted, a number of Montagnais families 
from Seven Islands hunt near the upper George River nearly 
west from Hopedale. The height of land there is one hun- 
dred to one hundred and fifty miles from the coast. All, 
or nearly all, of these families make the long journey to 
Seven Islands at intervals, going usually by the upper 
Hamilton, Ashwanipi Lake, and the Moisie. Rather regu- 
larly some of these make a visit to the east coast in winter, 
and sometimes in summer. 

In the northern district, tributary to Fort Chimo, there 
are some forty or fifty families, according to Peter 
McKenzie. A certain number of Indians from Whale 
River also come to Chimo more or less regularly, perhaps 



THE INDIANS 197 

more often to Fort George or other posts on Hudson Bay. 
These probably belong to the division mentioned by Low 
in his large Labrador report as the coastal Indians of Hud- 
son Bay. Their dialect is not very easy for the other 
Indians to understand, probably from its jib way affinities. 
Those who come to Chimo are strong, active people, proud 
of their large hunts and of the long journeys they make to 
the coast. They look down a little on the Chimo Indians, 
many of whom hunt comparatively near by. The eastern 
Nascaupees, in particular, are not very ambitious either 
in fur hunting or travel. The caribou supply nearly all their 
wants, so that not much effort is required to get fur enough 
to pay for what else they require. Indians do not enter 
the wide peninsula to the west of Ungava, which is Eskimo 
ground so far as occupied. From Koksoak River to Hud- 
son Bay the respective areas covered by the two races are 
separated approximately by the line of the Nastapoka 
and Larch rivers, which constitute a route surveyed by 
Low, and pursued by Mr. and Mrs. Tasker of Philadelphia 
in 1906. 

The name Nascaupee is a slighting term given to the 
northern Indians by their more sophisticated neighbours 
of the south. Originally the word seems to have meant 
ignorant, unlearned, but is now connected usually with 
pagan or heathen people who have not had religious in- 
struction. In his very comprehensive report (1885-1886), 
published by the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 
Lucius M. Turner gives the name Nascaupee as meaning 
false, unworthy, and as connecting the people with a failure 
to join in some movement against the Eskimo in the old 
days; but this rendering seems etymologically doubtful. 



198 LABRADOR 

Their immediate neighbours call the eastern Nascaupees 
Mushauau-eo, " Barren-ground People," and their principal 
river, the George, is known to all Indians as Mushauau 
Shibo, or " Barren-ground River." 

The Nascaupees' name for themselves is Nenenot, "True 
or Ideal People." Literally this seems to mean "Our Own 
People," which, after all, in the minds of most races comes 
to much the same thing. These meanings have been 
quoted by a recent traveller, Wallace, who gives some of 
the information gathered during a visit at Chimo. His 
statement regarding the Indians' extreme fear of the sea 
seems at least exaggerated. He describes them as afraid 
to even look upon the sea below Chimo. On the contrary, 
Mr. Guy, long resident at Chimo, has observed little feeling 
of the sort. During his time there a young white man 
while hunting was drowned in a lake on a stream emptying 
into the bay. Some Indians not only went down to the 
sea by canoe and around to recover the body, but made 
the trip a second time to find the rifle. In the recent ob- 
servation of some Chimo hunters on the Atlantic side, they 
took very readily to salt water, boating and canoeing under 
reasonable conditions. If unnecessary canoeing about Un- 
gava with its forty- to sixty-foot tides and notoriously 
bad navigation has small attraction for them, the circum- 
stance is not to be taken as phenomenal. None who has 
actually voyaged with these masters of the open canoe is 
likely to believe them water-timid. Turner says these 
Indians bear cold as well as the Eskimo do, although under 
starvation they do not hold their working strength so well. 
The little children certainly show astonishing indifference to 
cold. 



THE 1NBIANS 199 

The lake and river route from the middle George to 
Chimo leads westerly to Whale River. This is not the 
Whale River mentioned in connection with the coastal 
Indians, which is a great stream of the Hudson Bay slope. 
The present river is smaller, and is known to the Indians 
as Manouan, " Egg-gathering Place." They describe the 
route as a hard one, and the Manouan as alinum, " diffi- 
cult." The river route eastward to the Atlantic is not 
difficult for a light party, but as it includes more than twenty 
lakes with many long portages between, it is hard to follow 
without a guide, and is at best rather formidable for a loaded 
party. 

Formerly some of the southern Indians came up North- 
west River and hunted on its upper waters and those of 
rivers flowing eastward into the Atlantic. Their country, 
poor at best, suffered by fire; fish were small, the caribou 
more and more uncertain. Finding that the deer summered 
in the unoccupied lake country south of the Nascaupees 
and west of Hopedale, they adopted that region and gave 
up the difficult Northwest River route. Having changed 
their trading-point to Seven Islands, the easier route by 
the upper Hamilton and Lake Michikamau was very direct. 
The number of these families varies from half a dozen to 
as many as fifteen or more. Their summer route finally 
reaches the east coast by the Notaquanon ("Porcupine- 
hunting-place ' ' ) River. 

In winter, they can traverse the country without much 
reference to watercourses. The camps are in sheltered 
places, where there are trees enough to protect from the 
wind, and are almost always near water. The ice becomes 
too thick to be cut through easily, but whenever there is 



200 LABRADOR 

much weight of snow, the water comes over the ice in places 
near shore, and does not freeze when blanketed with ten 
or twelve inches of light snow. Such water can be cleared 
of slush by very little warming over the fire. In default 
of water, chopped ice melts much better than snow, which 
the people avoid. They prefer to work hard for twenty 
or thirty minutes chopping a hole, rather than bother to 
melt down an uncompacting mass of cold, porous snow. 
They rarely, if ever, drink ice-cold water, but warm it a few 
degrees, even building a special fire for this purpose when 
travelling. In this, as in most other race peculiarities, 
they find their opposite in their Eskimo neighbours, who are 
said to eat snow and swallow frozen food with only the 
happiest consequences. 

For winter travel, most of the people now use sheet-iron 
stoves a foot square and about two feet long. The snow 
is tramped level with the snow-shoes, the tent raised and 
boughs laid ; then the stove is placed on four stakes which 
are driven some three feet into the snow, and serve as legs. 
Such a stove will burn almost any small wood, and in a 
country where good wood is scarce, will save much time and 
labour in heavy chopping and shovelling snow, besides 
enabling the traveller to camp almost anywhere and not 
have to go more than a mile or two out of his course to 
get good wood. 

The Indians at Nichicun are classed by Low as Western 
Nascaupees. Only thirteen families traded at the post 
at the time of his visit. Other families in the neighbourhood 
go to the Gulf with their furs. Living near the geographical 
centre and apex of the plateau, they naturally hunt not 
far from Nichicun ( ' ' Otter-place ' ' ) Lake . They live almost 



THE INDIANS 201 

wholly on the country. Few deer are taken there, and 
while fish are generally plenty, the margin of subsistence is 
uncomfortably narrow. All the able-bodied men go to 
Rupert House in summer with the brigade, while the women 
keep the nets out in lakes near the post. The return jour- 
ney from Rupert takes about sixty days. Sometimes the 
start downward is made before the ice has left the lakes, 
but although the stay at Rupert is only a few days, the 
upper lakes are sometimes frozen again before their arrival 
at Nichicun. 

For some years Nichicun has been the only inland post 
in the whole peninsula, unless Mistassini, in the extreme 
southwest, be reckoned. The up voyage of the Mistassini 
brigade takes about fifty days. The lower part of its route, 
in common with that to Nichicun, follows Rupert River. 
There are seventy-five portages between Rupert and Mis- 
tassini. 

The thirty families who trade at Mistassini are also 
counted as Nascaupees. All the Indians known by this 
name are properly Swampy Crees. Those at Chimo say 
that they came originally from southwest of Hudson Bay 
to get away from the Iroquois. 

The brigade canoes are now of canvas, twenty-eight feet 
by five and one-half, by two and one-half deep, and carry 
five thousand pounds each of cargo. In 1898 thirty-five 
thousand pounds of freight went to Mistassini. The port- 
aging is arduous. Every man takes two " pieces," each of 
ninety to one hundred pounds' weight. There is compe- 
tition among the men for the bags of shot, which balance 
uncommonly well at the top of the load close to the neck. 
Such a load, of about two hundred pounds, is no trifle 



202 LABRADOR 

over rough and swampy ground; but every man, down 
to the least, prefers to take his two pieces at once rather 
than make two trips. The downward trip from Mistassini 
in a light canoe takes about ten days. 

The unit of value here, as formerly in most of the north, 
is the "Made Beaver." In 1898 a fair-sized actual skin 
was worth 2 MB. Prices were virtually a nominal matter; 
the people simply took down their furs and brought back 
their necessaries, with a share for the post. If for any rea- 
son a man did not have much fur to turn in, he was still 
taken care of, being at least furnished ammunition and 
other means of getting fur and food. 

The Mistassini people hunt chiefly to the north on the 
east main head water, the "Nichicun side" of the country. 
Far from outside help, this region has a history of starva- 
tion. For a long term of years, the deaths from starvation 
were more than from all other causes combined. For a 
time the district was abandoned. The fur game increased 
remarkably, tempting the people back, and about the year 
1906 new cases of starvation occurred. There is not much 
large game, and in the periodic seventh year, when rabbits 
fail, and perhaps the uncertain ptarmigan or " white par- 
tridge" does not come, the worst may follow. 

All the families of the southern slope now take in enough 
supplies to escape actual starvation. About the year 1904 
the large Etienne family, of Ste. Anne, transported about 
one-third the total amount they would naturally consume ; 
and this may be taken as a fair example of the best half- 
breed practice. So large an amount can be moved only by 
stages. The canoe carries a load to the end of the stage 
of a few miles, and then drops back for another cargo. 



THE INDIANS 203 

The hunting-place of the Etiennes is at Temiscamie, on the 
very head of Rupert River above Mistassini. Their route 
follows Peribonka River for nearly three hundred miles. 

From Lake St. John the Indians hunt the large rivers 
northward to the height of land, and to some extent beyond. 
The great evergreen regions of the East Main are the best 
hunting-grounds now; there, in the " black growth" forests, 
the martens are dark and rich, fetching prices of $15 to 
$30; but the journey is long, and not many hunters from 
the south go so far. Wherever burnt districts have come 
up to birch and aspen, fur values are lower. In such dis- 
tricts there may be plenty of martens, but by an interesting 
observance of the laws of protective colouration, the fur 
tends to match the general light aspect of the country 
and is pale and less valuable. 

The hunting-lands are held by individual hunters, and 
are passed down from one generation to another by customs 
of inheritance similar to our own. The hunting naturally 
descends upon some man of active age; if a daughter is 
married, the young husband may succeed to the lands. 
Surviving parents, or even more distant relatives, have, 
by common right, their place in the lodge. In fact, all 
must be taken care of in some way, in one lodge or another ; 
about the hunters group the dependent ones, widows and 
orphans and incapacitated ; none is denied his right. 

Infringements upon each other's hunting-grounds are 
probably no more frequent than the cutting of timber on 
another's land in civilization. The restraint of Indians 
in such matters is far beyond that of more advanced races. 
In passing across another's ground, which may take some 
days,. the traveller has the right to take enough game for 



204 LABRADOR 

subsistence, but not to hunt fur, nor to accumulate a stock 
of provisions. 

The number of animals taken yearly depends on their 
abundance; enough are always left to renew the supply. 
Usually the land is divided into three parts, which are 
hunted in rotation from year to year. On the southern 
slope the beaver is greatly valued, perhaps more for its 
wonderfully good meat than its fur. The most sustaining 
foods are beaver and bear. With bread, of course, all the 
game is sustaining, — fish, flesh, and fowl, — but the family 
thrown for weeks or months on rabbits and ptarmigan alone, 
with perhaps a little fish, weakens in time to the point of 
danger. The expression " Starve on rabbits" is well under- 
stood in the north. 

The beaver is taken, not uncommonly, by " staking," 
a method which involves the driving of long stakes in a sort 
of grating over the under-water exits of the beaver, and then 
easily digging out the imprisoned animals. Bears are 
found even in midwinter, sometimes by aid of the small 
dogs, but more often by taking advantage of the bear's 
habit of returning to the same place for successive winters. 
Their empty nests are noted in summer and visited at con- 
venience during the long period of hibernation. 

The keen little dogs referred to are indispensable in the 
hunting of small game, joining their efforts and senses to 
those of the family in a marvellous way. In travelling by 
canoe, they are often put ashore to run the banks, with great 
effect. An Indian dog, a pole, and a noose are as effective 
a combination in hunting some of the grouse kind as almost 
any that can be brought to bear. 

The substantial fish of the country, and valued accord- 



THE INDIANS 205 

ingly, is the lake trout — namaycush, often called kokomesh, 
"the fish that swallows anything." It sometimes grows 
to thirty or forty pounds' weight. Although a lake fish, it 
is found in some of the running rivers in summer, taking 
flies along with the fontinalis. The latter is not as impor- 
tant to the people as the namaycush, and is, on the whole, 
less regarded by both whites and Indians. In fact, when 
cooked by boiling, which is the method of the country, — 
perhaps of all countries where the main living is upon fish, 
— the lake trout may fairly be reckoned the better fish of 
the two. 

The whitefish, when of good size, holds a higher place 
than either of the trouts. It is a different species from the 
western one, the coregonus, and such fortunate persons as 
have taken it from the cold rivers of the plateau are likely 
to regard it as the superior fish. Its specific name is labra- 
doricus. The fish is rather insipid, "vealy," when young, 
but gains in flavour and firmness up to the weight of six 
or eight pounds. It is caught with the gill net, which in 
the northern districts becomes useless by midwinter, as 
the fish go into the deepest water and are considerably 
dormant. Line-fishing then becomes the only resource. 
The whitefish is thus unavailable, and the trouts and the 
pike form the mainstay. In many waters of the south 
slope the most dependable fish in midwinter is one called 
among whites by the various names — maria, ling, loche, 
cusk, and fresh- water cod. This curious combination, to all 
appearances, of eel and hornpout, comes freely into shallow 
water under thick ice, and is easily caught by set lines with 
almost any bait. Its native name is mildkato, which has 
been translated by a Montagnais as " Big-wide-head. " 



206 LABRADOR : 

Another rendering from a native source carries the meaning 
of its being a nasty, disagreeable-looking fish, which is cer- 
tainly accurate. The flesh flakes quite like cod, and is 
rather good. Its habitat extends at least as far south as 
the Connecticut Lakes of New Hampshire. 

The list of important fishes includes the ouandniche, or 
" land-locked salmon," found rather widely over the south- 
eastern quarter of the country, the red and white suckers, 
and the pike-perch, or wall-eyed pike; the range of the latter 
extends as far as the eastern heads of the Maniquagan, 
where a round lake nine miles across is known as okauinipi, 
''pike perch water." As kau means rough, the name 
of the fish would seem to come from the perch like rough- 
ness of its scales. 

Last and least of the common southwestern fishes is the 
river-chub, or dace, which in the cold streams is good 
throughout the summer. It should be skinned rather than 
scaled. Its native name is uitiish " stone-carrier, " from 
its well-known habit of piling up pebbles in the shallows. 

The wooden spear is used for all kinds of large fish at 
times, especially for the salmon. To fish with a torch and 
spear is waswdno, hence Waswanipi lake, south of Hud- 
son Bay, and possibly Ashwanipi, the large lake north of 
the Moisie on Hamilton Water. 

According to John Bastian, a young Scotch-Montagnais 
of Pointe Bleue, who was hunting there between Mistinik 
and Kaniapishkau, that region has practically no rabbits 
or beaver, — there being little food for them, — although 
it is a good district for martens. Other subsistence failing, 
John and his companion were thrown wholly upon fish, 
caught with difficulty and boiled without salt, for two or 




Indians watching the Caribou at a Crossing 




Nascaupee Indians at Davis Inlet 



THE INDIANS 207 

three months. ■ " It was hard work to cut the holes to fish 
through, " for the ice became six or seven feet thick, but they 
had enough fish to live on. John suffered from cramps 
while doing without salt, and they both grew weak, although 
the companion, who was more used to such living, got on 
somewhat better than he. They "felt well enough, but 
had no strength." They were gone from the shore more 
than a year. The experience was rather a commonplace 
one for the regular hunters of these districts, but it left John 
a good deal reduced, and it was some time before he 
recovered his strength. 

The people who descend the Moisie in the summer gather 
at Sandgirt Lake on the Hamilton, apparently for the mere 
sake of seeing each other, and they keep together as may 
be until their final separation in the fall for their individual 
lands. Something of an inland trade used to be done among 
the people, and doubtless survives still. A Seven Islands 
hunter would give fur to a Bersimis man at some rendez- 
vous, and each would go his way. Months later, in the fall, 
one of the fine canoes for which Bersimis is known would 
be passed in return at some appointed place. A similar 
trade in canvas canoes goes on between the Gulf Indians 
and the Nascaupees, whose country furnishes no canoe 
bark. 

Rolls of canoe bark are still sold at some of the northern 
posts of the Hudson's Bay Company, being imported from 
more southern districts, along with other merchandise. 
Nevertheless, the supply has been insufficient for some years 
and often of poor quality ; while by some unnecessary neg- 
lect the northern posts have been short even of canvas. 
With the full supply of the latter laid in recently along the 



208 LABRADOR 

farther coasts, the almost distressing situation of the 
Indians is at last relieved. 

During the period of open water there is practically no 
foot travel. Some of the hunting-grounds, however, can- 
not be reached otherwise, and these are unoccupied until 
late. Mistinik, for instance, is reached by sleds from as far 
as the lakes of the Maniquagan, only two hundred miles from 
the Gulf, where the canoes are laid up and a stay made until 
winter sets in and the foot travel comes on. The tabanask, 
the sled for light snow, is as narrow as sixteen inches and 
is one-fourth or five-sixteenths of an inch thick. The 
thinner and more flexible the bottom, the easier the sled is 
to haul, but as they wear a little with use, it is better to 
start a long journey with a little extra stiffness. The ma- 
terial of the sled is usually white birch, sometimes larch. 
The latter is not likely to ice-up and stick in changing tem- 
peratures. This icing-up may occur at zero, or below, 
and is a very serious hindrance ; not much is done to pre- 
vent it, but there is no doubt of the good effect to come 
of such pitch-beeswax-tallow treatment as is given to the 
Norwegian ski, for the same sort of evil. Thin grease, or 
still worse, oil, does decided harm. The pulling is done from 
the head with the hands twisted into the lines behind the 
back. In midwinter the snow is dry and gritty, and a load 
of two hundred pounds, taken over a ten-mile stretch, may 
be a hard day's work for a strong man. As the snow settles 
in the spring, the loads and mileage increase, runner-sleds 
are taken into use, and on the lakes and rivers a load of 
five hundred pounds may move twenty or twenty-five miles 
a day. All the snow-shoes of the country are of the " round " 
type, which is doubtless better than any other for light snow 



THE INDIANS 209 

in a broken country. The prevailing pattern of the Sague- 
nay district is from twenty to twenty-four inches wide, 
with an ordinary tail four or five inches long. The rest of 
the peninsula generally is committed to a rather wider 
shoe, with a mere loop for a tail. The frame is in two pieces, 
spliced at the sides. A fine pair in possession of the writer 
are twenty-six inches wide and twenty-five and three- 
fourths inches long over all. Although the various patterns 
of round shoe look awkward or impossible at first sight, they 
are extremely well regarded by all who have used them. 
For firm snow or in a level country, a narrower shoe is ob- 
viously more suitable. For spring snow-shoeing almost any 
sort of a makeshift is sufficient ; still the round shape prevails, 
the shoe being smaller than for winter, and roughly made. 

For snow-shoe moccasins, caribou hide is largely used in 
Labrador, in default of moose. Instead of stockings are 
worn duffel slippers, "nips," which fit one inside another, 
and are very serviceable. The Indian hunters wear foot 
wraps — piuashigan — which need no repairs, are easily 
dried, and do not wear thin at heel and toe, like nips. Al- 
most any material serves for these, — blanketing, duffel, 
rabbit skins, or even old towels. 

In general, the Montagnais are rather badly clothed in 
trading-store furnishings. The Nascaupees are still con- 
siderably in skins, some, in fact, with no cloth garments 
at all. The men wear a breech cloth of skin, a sort of thin 
undershirt of unborn caribou with the slight fleece turned in, 
leggins of Hudson's Bay Company's "strauds," mocca- 
sins, and a skin or cloth frock over. Commonly, when 
inland, no sort of hat is worn. The hair of the men is cut 
off square above the shoulders. 



210 LABRADOR 

In winter the frock has a hood, and the moderate coat of 
hair which the summer skins bear is allowed to remain on, 
usually turned inside. For extreme weather this sort of 
frock is made without a hood, so that a hooded frock with 
hair outward can be put on over it. Sleeping-bags of 
caribou skin are commonly used. 

Many of the Chimo Indians have lately adopted trousers 
for winter wear, but the little band of George River people 
under Chief Ostinitsu still prefer leggins and the bare thigh. 
No foreign language is yet spoken by this group, nor do 
they use ordinarily either bread or salt. 

Although well off for guns, the chief means of support 
of this band are those of the prehistoric period. In fa- 
vourable years the deer-spear alone furnishes the main living. 
When the great migration is on, hundreds and sometimes 
thousands of caribou are speared on the lake and river 
crossings, without the firing of a shot. The smaller game 
and birds are taken largely in snares and wooden traps. 
Nets of their own making, either of sinew or twine, are 
their most dependable means, rarely failing for long of 
taking food during a large part of the year. Even in the 
last months of winter, the time of graver straits, they rest 
their forlorn hope, not on the gun or steel trap or fishing 
gear of trade, but on the unfailing wooden hook of ancient 
days. 

All in all, the life of these people remains singularly un- 
changed. It may be doubted whether another such survival 
of the purely primitive hunter, at the same time of so high a 
personality as that of the savage of temperate America, 
is to be found in any part of the world. The caribou are 
to them what the buffalo were to the Indians of the plains* 



THE INDIANS 211 

So long as continue the migrations; the old-time ways will 
prevail. 

The cooking of fresh material is done most usually by 
boiling, the most economical method, and the one which, 
preserving all the elements of the material in hand, wearies 
least upon the taste. 

In the caribou country, the preferred way of saving meat 
is by smoking and converting into pemmican. For this 
the meat is smoked rather brittle, pounded into powder 
and shreds upon a stone, and put into a bag or bladder. 
Melted fat is then poured in ; when the covering is stripped 
off, the pemmican looks like a lump of tallow, but an in- 
cision with the thumb nail exposes the meat. 

In the high, cool barrens, whole carcasses, skinned and 
cleaned, are left on the gravel-beaches to dry black in the 
sun and wind. Sometimes many hundreds of carcasses 
thus exposed may be seen along the beaches at the spearing 
places. 

The art of making pemmican is practised also by certain 
Africans and other primitive peoples, and the grease is 
sometimes replaced by honey or some similar preservative. 

If it is not surprising that so convenient a means of deal- 
ing with the food-supply should be found in various parts 
of the world, there is nevertheless a deer product in northern 
use which might more naturally be presumed as of only 
local use. This is the uinastikai of the caribou country; 
into the paunch of the caribou is put the blood, a little of 
the partly digested moss is left in, and the whole is cooked 
and dried, when it may be crumbled into grains like brown- 
ish gunpowder. It does not seem to be regarded as a 
delicacy, being, it would appear, more valued than liked, 



212 LABRADOR 

and used chiefly in times of scarcity. It is also prepared 
in northern Europe, and quite possibly may be found around 
the entire reindeer north. When starting for a day's hunt 
in winter, the Nascaupee takes a cup of water, stirs in a 
handful of uinastikai, and drinks the mixture. Until 
through hunting he takes no more food. The same ab- 
stinence during the day's hunting is noted of the Blackfeet 
by Shultz, and is doubtless common to the North American 
races. 

It is probable that the slightly digested moss which enters 
into the uinastikai appeals to our natural desire, seldom 
gratified in the northern life, for starchy food. A certain 
amount of this is contained by cladonia moss, although by 
itself it is hardly digestible. The Ungava Eskimo are said 
to chop up the caribou moss with seal oil as a sort of salad. 
If its use among primitive people is anything like coexten- 
sive with the range of the reindeer, there must be a practical 
justification for it. 

There are several kinds of berries in the semi-barrens, 
the service-berry, or mountain cranberry, being the one of 
principal importance to the Indians. To them it is known 
as uishitshimin, " bitter-berry." The shore people call 
it simply the redberry. The cloud-berry, or bake-apple, 
grows here and there in damp places, even to the bleak 
bogs of the height of land east of the middle George River. 
Blueberries, delicate of flavour and structure, grow on many 
of the coast islands and inland hills. They grow so close 
to the ground in exposed places that often it is not easy to 
pick one without getting a little grit at the same time. 
The crowberry, or curlewberry, locally " blackberry, " is 
very common near the coast, but is insipid. 



TEE INDIANS 213 

In the southern half of the peninsula the common blue- 
berry grows abundantly in burnt areas, and constitutes 
an important crop to both bears and Indians. At con- 
venient places the outgoing families burn fresh areas each 
spring, as the yield falls away after two or three crops. 
Coming up river in the early fall, the families camp at a 
suitable distance from their berry farm, and the men make 
a kind of surround hunt for bears. Sometimes as many 
as fifteen are taken in a few days. Then the women and 
children turn in for the berries. A good deal of blueberry 
cake is made, the berries being stewed in a kettle until they 
will hold together, and then dried. The name of the cake 
means "like liver/' from its final appearance; it will keep 
indefinitely. The blueberry is minish, the "little-berry." 

Formerly the barren-ground bear ranged rather widely 
in the northern districts. The last one reported was killed 
near the Barren-groundland Lake of the George about the 
year 1894. Peter McKenzie, who has bought their skins 
at Chimo, says the hair was very dark, even black. Both 
Eskimo and Indian regard it as aggressive and dangerous, 
though the Eskimo tales at least need not be taken too 
seriously. They are afraid of the common black bear, 
being unfamiliar with it. The much more formidable white 
bear they make little of, attacking him readily with hand 
weapons. No complete skin of the barren-ground bear of 
Labrador has been examined; the species is probably 
extinct now, and while it is not unlikely to have been a 
variety of grizzly, its identity may never be established. 

The caribou range from Hudson Strait to the coast at 
Belle Isle Strait, where they sometimes mix with the larger 
woodland species. The migrations do not hold together 



214 LABRADOR 

after leaving the barrens, but scatter into the timbered 
country of the Hamilton Inlet basin, and from there to the 
Atlantic. Sometimes the greater herd stays south two or 
three years, to the great privation, or worse, of the Indians. 
The families east of the George can generally reach the coast 
in time to save themselves. At Chimo, in the nineties, nearly 
half the people starved or died about the post from illnesses 
due to their enfeebled condition. Actual starvation may 
happen almost anywhere excepting in the short summer, 
for subsistence is not altogether secure in any district with- 
out the aid of coast provisions. The late Charles Robertson, 
whose last years were passed at Pointe Bleue, used to speak 
with feeling of the bad conditions on the "Nichicun side," 
as an indefinite area north of Rupert River is called. 
During the long administration at Chimo of Mr. Matheson, 
lately retired, it was the usual yearly happening that five 
or six hunters "did not come back." They had fallen 
somewhere, hunting to the last, — for the less the strength 
of the hunter, the more urgent the need of finding some- 
thing before it is too late. 

The semi-barrens of the northeast, the home of the 
Nascaupees, and of the caribou they live on, is in summer 
an attractive country. Unmapped lakes of large size lie 
along the height of land east of the George, and smaller 
ones here and there to the very coast. When the deer are 
passing north, the best crossing is often at Mistinisi, a fine 
lake fifteen or twenty miles long discharging into the Barren- 
ground Lake. The crossing-place is six or eight miles from 
the east end, and is at least a third of a mile wide. If the 
leaders of the migration are turned, the whole route is 
shifted, perhaps a long distance. It is certain that very 



THE INDIANS 21& 

slight causes must serve to determine their course of 
migration, for no one can tell just where it will go. From 
Atlantic to Alaska, throughout the immense territory of 
the barrens, this is true; no race or tribe can foretell in 
this absolutely important matter. Some scattering deer 
are found over the country apart from the main herd ; and 
the latter may break up into smaller bands. 

The shore people from Hopedale north formerly depended 
much on their deer supply. For some years this has failed. 
The southward movement was never much depended on 
at the coast, while recent fires have swept so much of the 
country south of Davis Inlet that the northward movement 
may be shunted off inland around the burnt district for 
a long time to come. 

So far as the caribou and the Indian are concerned, the 
loss of the shore people is quite their gain, for the latter 
are well armed, good shots, and have less restraint in killing 
than the Indians. An Eskimo family south of Nain told 
the writer that they ought to get one hundred deer in a good 
season, for themselves and dogs. North of Nain conditions 
are less changed. The Eskimo hunters from Nain and 
Okkak meet near the height of land west of Okkak late in 
the winter, and often get all the meat their dogs can haul 
out. Large wolves, varying from gray to black, accom- 
pany the herds. 

The northern Indians are still polygamous, though the 
limited number of women tends toward practical monogamy. 
The work about the lodge is done mainly by the women; 
what with dressing skins, making pemmican, and the 
ordinary housework, they are often overworked. In time 
of scarcity there is little for them to do, while the men, 



216 LABRADOR 

as straits continue, wear down rapidly under the constant 
hunting. On the hunter, in the end, hangs the fate of all, 
and this is to be remembered when in times of plenty the 
men are found merely spearing the deer as they make the 
crossing and leaving the hard work of meat and skins to 
the women. In the evil day that is sure to come, it is most 
often the women and children who survive, husbanding 
their strength in the lodges until some hunter brings game. 
There is no question as to the fate of the hunter who does 
not return, though the spot where he sank to his lonely 
end may never be known. 

These recurring vicissitudes of the hunting life, especially 
in the farther north, must be taken account of before judg- 
ment is passed upon some of the customs and traits of such 
races. Until recently the old and feeble among the people 
were at times put out of the way by their relatives. It 
must be understood not only that the necessary alternative 
was usually abandonment and death by freezing or starva- 
tion, but that the event was brought about by the request 
of the person concerned. 

It might be difficult to find a people more devoted to 
their own than these. In his well-known Twenty-five 
Years of Service John McLean has an interesting chap- 
ter on their traits, his long relations with them standing 
in as good stead as the imagination which gives colour to 
Hind's accounts of them as seen at Seven Islands in later 
years in his Labrador Peninsula. To quote a passage : — 

"In their intercourse with us the Nascaupees evince a 
very different disposition from the other branches of the 
Cree family, being selfish and inhospitable in the extreme ; 
exacting rigid payment for the smallest portion of food. 



THE INDIANS 217 

Yet I do not know that we have a right to blame a practice 
in them which they have undoubtedly learned from us. 
What do they obtain from us without payment ? Nothing ; 
not a shot of powder, not a ball, not a flint. But whatever 
may be said of their conduct towards the whites, no people 
can exercise the laws of hospitality with greater generosity, 
or show less selfishness toward each other, than the Nascau- 
pees. The only part of an animal a hunter retains for him- 
self is the head ; every other part is given up for the com- 
mon benefit. Fish, flesh, and fowl are distributed in the 
same liberal and impartial manner ; and he who contributes 
most seems as contented with his share, however small 
it may be, as if he had no share in procuring it. In fact, a 
community of goods seems almost established among them. 
The few articles they purchase from us shift from hand 
to hand, and seldom remain more than two or three days in 
the hands of the original purchasers." 

The Cree, which is considered the parent language of all 
the Algic dialects, is believed to have had its early home 
and centre of development not far from its present place. 
The Iroquois also are thought to have emerged from the 
same quarter, — " somewhere north of the St. Lawrence 
and east of Hudson Bay." The development of either 
race in such a latitude would seem to be one of numbers 
rather than of racial type or language, for the last Glacial 
period there ended only a few thousand years ago, while 
the physical type of both these peoples appears to have 
been very long established ; and, as well as their accessories 
of clothing and other belongings, gives a strong impression 
of development in more moderate latitudes. 

The Algonquin group of languages, to which all the dia- 
lects of the peninsula belong, are both well developed in 
method and generally agreeable in sound. Their accept- 



218 LABRADOR 

ability to the Anglo-Saxon ear is evident from the con- 
tinued use over the country of their innumerable place- 
names. Once adopted by the white race, these names are 
rarely displaced; indeed, are brought more into use as 
time goes on. More than half of the Indian place-names 
of the northeastern states would be readily understood by 
the Montagnais or the Nascaupees of Ungava Bay : thus, 
K'taadn, Monadnock, and Wachusett; Penobscot, Kenne- 
bec, and Connecticut; Massachusetts, Narraganset, and 
Manhattan, are as plain in their meaning to the northern- 
most Cree of the barrens as they are familiar in sound to 
the white dwellers of New England. 

To the white stranger these are merely well-sounding 
names, but without significance ; to the Indian each brings 
its image: the " Great Mountain"; the " Mountain-stand- 
ing-alone"; the " Long-open- water " (Moosehead Lake); 
" Long-river " ; the " Region-about-the-large-hills " (Blue 
Hills); the " Point-country " (Mount Hope Point); "The 
Island," — and the list might go on. 

Algonquin place-names are rarely fanciful; the method 
of life required an accurate and serviceable system of geo- 
graphical description, the function of which was too im- 
portant to be trifled with. Much of the eastern country 
was remarkably irregular and made up of features often 
repeating themselves at different angles. Few regions of 
the world, perhaps, are as confusing to the traveller as 
were formerly the vast forested areas of mountains and 
watercourses throughout the north Atlantic belt. 

Of necessity the descriptive method of the people was of 
almost legal severity, and is in the north to-day. Personal 
names, however, are often subjects of fancy. The humour 



THE INDIANS 219 

of the people lays quick hold of the possibilities of the nick- 
name. 

Not infrequently the name of a child is given from some 
trait or chance occurrence. The name Mattawayshish, 
"Playbear," belonging to an Indian first seen by the writer 
as a tall old man, dignified though feeble, was doubtless 
given by the mother to the little boy who played behind the 
bushes in days long gone. 

A short, active man with a peg-top build was nicknamed 
Mistnouk, from the great triangular fly known in Maine .as 
the moose-fly. A stranger from across some far water 
was dubbed " Over-sea " or its Indian equivalent. 1 Indian 
rebaptisms, as to name, are not uncommon, especially 
in connection with younger men of no especial standing. 
Many of the Montagnais have French names. Neverthe- 
less, as many as half the people, it may be, speak only the 
aboriginal tongue ; their names, with those of many others, 
are naturally still of the vernacular. 

As regards the language as a whole, it is probable that 
few but its actual students realize its scope and resources. 
Notwithstanding the number of names both of places and 
persons which we have accepted from the race, it would 
not be far wrong to say that the chance person of cultiva- 
tion, if told that the Indian language consisted of a few 
uncouth words of limited import, would assent as a matter 
of course. It is true that their field of observation as com- 
pared with that of modern civilization is limited. The 
swelling tide of our technical vocabularies, our now half- 
inanimate burden of metaphysical terms, have scarcely 

1 A northern Indian had a name meaning " Man-in-the-Moc-n." 



220 LABRADOR 

a counterpart in the unwritten speech of the lodge and the 
open. 

Yet in the human relation the tongue falls little if any- 
thing short ; its terms for a thousand features of earth and 
sky and the endless manifestations of the outdoor world 
are far beyond our own ; our Bible, Old Testament and New, 
finds its way into the language without loss, and an inherit- 
ance of story and song, no ruder than that of our own race 
at a pitifully near period, is passed by clear minds from 
old to young as the generations go. 

In Lemoine's French-Montagnais Dictionary are some 
twelve thousand title words, yet the commoner forms are 
not exhausted. In Wat kins' Cree Dictionary are thirteen 
thousand five hundred Indian title words, and it is probable 
that Indians of superior mind command a yet greater vo- 
cabulary. Without the support of writing, the Indian mind 
compares in this capacity evenly, or better than evenly, with 
that of the white races. When it is remembered that, 
according to Whitney, three thousand to five thousand 
words " cover the ordinary needs of cultivated intercourse" 
and that " three thousand is a very large estimate for the 
number ever used in writing and speaking by a well-educated 
man," the dimensions of the Algic list of ideas may be some- 
what appreciated. 

Some peculiar advantages of structure in the Cree have 
been urged recently by Berloin in a remarkable analysis 
of more than two hundred pages, entitled La Parole Hu- 
maine. His conclusions are singularly complimentary to 
the language; their level may be perceived from a sen- 
tence of his last page, — " Peut-il concevoir meilleur el plus 
noble langage?" 



THE INDIANS 221 

Whether his enthusiasm is to be fully shared, or whether 
such a view must be taken as going obviously too far, if 
only because the language was conceived by savages, may 
be left for scholars yet to come. 

Superficially, the structure of the language has some 
resemblances to Latin, mainly in its wonderfully inflected 
verb. The noun is little inflected, although it has a certain 
accusative usage. The adjective is put in a verbal form, 
as wapau, "it is white"; hence wapush, "little- white-one" 
(rabbit), and wapilao, "white partridge." Adverbs are 
favoured, and are often placed early in the .sentence, as in 
"Quickly I ran." Pronouns are rather fully inflected. 
The particles are wanting. Of the verb it may be said 
that it bears nearly the whole weight of the language. 
The development of this part of speech is extraordinary. 
The Dictionary of Father Lemoine gives three hundred and 
seventy-seven inflections of a single regular verb, and pre- 
sents no less than fifteen conjugations. The number of 
inflections in actual use much exceeds this number. 

The resemblance to Latin is quite close in some of these 
verbal inflections, notably such as the imperfect in -aban 
as compared with -abat in Latin, and the perfect with the 
sharp it, as in the Latin amavit. 

The dual form for we exists, as in the primitive Greek 
and German. A special inflection is observed when the 
subject of the verb is speaking to a person present. The 
number of inflections is nearly doubled by the use of sepa- 
rate forms for animate and inanimate objects, thus: — 

I like the dog — ni shatshitan atum. 

I like the tent — ni shatshiau mitshiuap. 



222 LABRADOB 

Certain articles of importance are granted the superior 
form of the verb : among these are dshamits, " snow-shoes " ; 
ashtesh, " gloves " ; uiash, " meat " ; and the names of the dif- 
ferent furs. Curiously, perhaps, for with aboriginal races the 
flesh is weak in this connection, ishkut'eu-a'pui, " whiskey," 
is not given the higher genre, nor shuliau, " money " (silver), 
while uapamin, " apple," is. 

New names have come with the white regime : — 

Horse, Kapilikishuao — he that has but a single toe. 

Cow, Uishauautuk — the yellow deer. 

Turkey, Mishildo — great partridge. 

Cat, Minsk 

Iron, Assukumdn — kettle-metal or material. 

Tin, Uapukuman — white-metal. 

Gun, Passigan — thunderer. 

Soap, Uapdkiigan — whitener. 

Spy-glass, Tushkdpitshigan — instrument for seeing far. 

The ending s or sh, as in wapush, " rabbit," and miush, 
"cat, " is a diminutive. Such is Tshipshas (lake), " Little 
Tshipshau , ' ' and Mistassinis, ' ' Little Mistassini . ' ' The latter 
name signifies " Great Stone," from a large boulder on the 
shore of that lake, which is regarded as having occult 
influences. Almost all the names of fish and other crea- 
tures are plainly descriptive. 

It may be inferred that not much borrowing from other 
languages has occurred for a long time. Considering how 
few of our common names, such as horse, dog, cod, trout, 
not to mention names of inanimate objects, have any 
descriptive meaning to us, as words, this survival of original 
meanings in the Indian emphasizes the compositeness, at 
least, of our English tongue. 

Wa- as a prefix means white; was- or wash-, bright 



THE INDIANS 223 

and shining. Wash alone means sky; Washeshkundu 
means blue, sky-colour. 

The language is mild in its cadences. Little conversa- 
tion accompanies serious occupation and travelling. When 
making camp, the young men toss their japes back and forth, 
and about the fire the women talk and laugh when by them- 
selves in the world-wide fashion. 

The religion of the country is professedly almost wholly 
Christian. The people trading around Hudson Bay are 
Protestants, while all the Montagnais are Catholics, cared 
for spiritually by the various missions of the Gulf and the 
Saguenay. 

It is not to be supposed that the old beliefs are extinct ; 
on the contrary, no reserve or gathering place is so changed 
in blood or so affected by white neighbourhood as not to 
have among its members those who are priests of the older 
theology and can deal with at least some of the overpowers 
of earth and sky. The influence of these many spirits for or 
against the laymen is determined largely by the rites of the 
manitu lodge. The spirits are not malevolent if uninflu- 
enced, although naturally less to be trusted as their form 
approaches the human ; but the power of the priest, liter- 
ally a mam'tsesht, or " spirit-person," may win over almost 
any spirit to evil purposes. The one supernatural being 
of original malice is the frightful windigo, described as a 
cannibal man fifteen or twenty feet high. He lies in wait 
for the solitary hunter, and rushes out upon him. The 
mere glimpse of a windigo brings calamity and an early 
and unfortunate end. The spell may, however, be broken 
by making the proper observances ; these are usually done 
by the manitsesht, who has power in these matters. 



224 LABBADOB 

"The Great Spirit," the Tshe Manitu, is wholly good, but 
remote and scarcely approachable. The conception seems 
hardly anthropomorphic at all, certainly not as clearly so 
as the Biblical one. 

What is doubtless an Indianized doctrine of the Trinity 
has had standing for many years, even in districts west of 
Hudson Bay. 

"The First One" — Puk-wa-sha-ne-magan — "gives us 
that which we must beg for" (what is necessary for mere 
existence) . 

"The Second One" — Wahkt-Kna — "gives us too much, 
more than we can use" — (deer, fish, etc., in great numbers). 

"The Third One" — Tshe Manitu — "is the greatest of 
all; He gives us the Fur, of which we cannot have too 
much." 

It must be confessed that as to the concerns of the other 
world the concept is not very comprehensive. 

All notable features of the country have their local 
spirits. As a safe rule, the ordinary person does well to 
avoid them. Some are always well disposed, but as a 
spirit of bad intentions may take an attractive form for 
his own purposes, it is better for the laymen at least to have 
no dealings with any of them. The people are readily sus- 
ceptible to missionary instruction, in all earnestness put- 
ting on the new faith over the old, which may be supposed 
to relinquish its ancient hold only about in proportion as 
the hunting life is given up. This hardly occurs save with 
persons of much white blood; so long as the wilderness 
life and the language continue, the old theology will survive. 

Under the strict injunctions of the Gulf missionaries, the 
sound of the teuehigan, "the ceremonial drum," is not heard 



THE INDIANS 225 

on the summer reserve, but once beyond hearing of the 
missions some remnant of the old rites is not far to seek. 
On the other hand, the church calendar is carried every- 
where over the Montagnais country; each day a pin is 
moved forward and pinned through the paper at the suc- 
ceeding date, and feast-days and Sundays are pretty well 
observed.. Although the Oblates do not require the people 
to bring their dead to the shore, they do it when possible, 
for burial in consecrated ground; yet along most of the 
travelled routes of the south are a few graves, marked 
sometimes by wooden cross and fence. The burial spots 
are held in respect by the passers-by ; camps are not made 
very near, nor the peace of the place disturbed. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE MISSIONS • 
By W. T. Grenfell 

The Moravian Mission 

If a man in Labrador is not a fisherman, that is, a cod- 
catcher, he traps fur-bearing animals in winter and catches 
salmon in summer. The trappers form a class apart from 
the rest of the shore people. They seldom come out "to 
the coast/' their winter industry keeping them far inland 
and their summer salmon-catching being convenient in not 
forcing them to transfer their families very far down the 
bays. There is, however, every gradation, from the moun- 
taineer Indian, who does nothing all the year but trap and 
kill deer, through the Eskimo, who once only killed seals, 
but now even catches furs and " fishes," to the man who 
lives entirely "out of the water/' i.e. never outfits for the 
winter furring. 

Until 1905 the trade of all these people was carried on 
by two great companies, the Hudson's Bay Company and 
the Moravian Missions. The Hudson's Bay Company 
originally dealt only with Indians, but the intermarriage 
and settling of their own imported servants have built up 
a class which beats the Indians at their own industry, and 
now does a far larger trade in fur. The Indians are reduced 
to a mere handful, while the strong Scotch and Norwegian 

226 



THE MISSIONS 227 

stock is steadily growing and displacing both Indians and 
Eskimo. Farther north, the Moravians care for the Eskimo. 
The Hudson's Bay Company have also made a bid for their 
trade, establishing posts at Nachvak (since abandoned) 
and at Ungava. 

At present the Moravians have four stations. The most 
northerly station is that at Killinek, or Cape Chidley. 
Here the Eskimo, attracted by the excellent seal-fishery, 
walrus, and white-whale fishery to be had at the cape, 
have gathered from the northeast coast and from Ungava 
Bay. Though the turbulent currents and whirlpools are 
dangerous to kayaks, the Eskimo have no fear of venturing 
out, and, at times, cross to the Button Islands to hunt 
there. A man with his family will, in the spring, transfer 
all his belongings to a pan of ice at Fort Chimo, and live by 
hunting and shooting on the floating ice till he arrives at 
the cape, one hundred and eighty miles distant. He finds 
no monotony, feels no cold, and knows no fear of conditions 
which would whiten the hair of many a bold European. 

At the present time one Moravian family dwells at the 
station. They have themselves built a house, church, 
and stores. Even the church is admirably constructed to 
keep out the cold. It is floored under the sills, double 
floored over them, and filled between with cement. Thick 
tarred paper in one piece runs up in a similar manner be- 
tween the layers of the wall. To Europeans the site seems 
the most villainous dwelling-place possible. The settle- 
ment is situated in a deep gulch with a wall of rock opposite, 
shutting out any view; a terribly dangerous current runs 
through the defile. The tides rise and fall thirty-five feet. 
The land is entirely bare of woody growth, even shrubs, 



228 LABRADOR 

and for firing the people must depend on what driftwood 
is washed up, or else on seal-fat lamps. The average tem- 
perature for the year is far below freezing. One mail a 
year is the most the people can ever expect. They can 
reach and talk to no Europeans, except possibly by a long 
and dangerous shore journey taken once in the winter. 
In sickness or accident there is no skilled help. Yet these 
patient missionaries have just selected this spot for a 
station. 

The missionary in charge at present is a splendid speci- 
men of humanity, broad and strong far beyond the average 
man, with merry blue eyes, and the abundant light hair of 
a Viking. He has a capacity for work, and an accuracy 
of mind rarely equalled. His hospitality and generous 
manner toward strangers, along with all his other splendid 
qualities, make him the ideal man for the environment. 
One could imagine that he had dropped off an ancient 
"war swan" and had persisted ever since those days on 
these seemingly God-forsaken rocks. The man's scorn of 
physical conditions, the hard things that he has moulded 
to his will and use, the absolute happiness he always seems 
to enjoy, have shown to me, each time I have visited the 
station, how man, as God would have him be, towers above 
his circumstances. One leaves the station regretting that 
so few should be there to benefit, humbled and glad that 
men of such type still live to adorn the human race. 
Other thoughts, I confess, have risen to my mind in the 
enervating palaces of some of those "more wealthy." 

Few furs are caught there. The white fox and the polar 
bear alone are not uncommon. The sight and smell of 
seal and walrus blubber are everywhere. Fat is the meas- 



THE MISSIONS 229 

ure of wealth. Fat in gallons is the coin of their 
realm. To the Eskimo of the place, such a man and 
his mission mean everything, pessimists notwithstand- 
ing. 

Proceeding north one passes an abandoned station of 
the Hudson Bay Company called Nakvak. Beyond that, 
near the old station of Ramah, about a hundred miles to 
the southeastward, the Eskimo dwell in holes in the 
ground with skin bowel-parchment windows that do not 
open, and with roofs and entrances made of sods. There 
are no islands near to supply birds and eggs ; the decrease 
in the number of seal and walrus and the low market or 
local value of sea-trout have seriously impoverished the 
people. This poverty means that they are poorly equipped 
for travel ; in consequence, they dawdle about the unsavoury 
village when they should be seeking and finding sustenance, 
gaining health and strength by migrating from place to 
place as they always did of yore. Here they are much 
more dependent upon the missionary, upon his supply of 
clothing, and upon his kablenak or European food, than 
is good for them. From their physical condition it is 
perfectly easy to tell a Ramah Eskimo from a Cape Chidley 
man, though you may never have seen either previously. 

A journey to the southward of nearly another hundred 
miles brings us to the third station at Hebron. This is 
still a good hunting station. Its Eskimo have been wisely 
taught by the Brethren to segregate and not congregate. 
No permanent village has come into being. A few sod 
houses and one or two better houses exist. This would 
to-day be probably far the most creditable settlement of 
Eskimo, had it not been for the carrying of several families 



230 LABRADOR 

to show them to the curious at the exhibitions at Chicago, 
Buffalo, and elsewhere. Few returned, and they richer 
only in those heirlooms of civilization, the germs of specific 
diseases, which most efficiently put a stop to the growth 
of the community, and left a diseased and miserable people 
to be a constant danger to every "Innuit" on the coast. 

Another forty miles to the south was Okkak, the 
largest station. It is within the northern limit of trees, 
and consequently houses, boats, and firing were more 
easily acquired. A large number of permanent wooden 
houses had been erected. At certain seasons of the 
year considerable social life was possible. The an- 
nual census shows that during the fifty years previous 
to 1902 the congregation was steadily growing in 
numbers. Some small arts and crafts were established 
and quite a trade done in ivory carvings, in modern 
skin dolls, tubiks or tents, kayaks, etc., and in wooden 
models of native houses, komatiks, and such like. 
This station was entirely blotted out in 1919 by 
Spanish influenza. Out of 365 Eskimo 300 perished 
including every single adult male. It has been tem- 
porarily abandoned but when Nain was destroyed 
by fire in 1921 a large portion of that congregation 
returned to reopen Okkak. 

The Brethren here had a little hospital besides their 
educational and religious work. At first the "Innuits" 
would not subject themselves to the necessary hospital 
regulations. We carried thither the first patients in our 
little hospital steamer. A severe epidemic of grippe (with 
heart troubles and other complications) was killing many. 
We had picked up a full load, and dumped them on the new 




West Coast Eskimo 



THE MISSIONS 231 

doctor. It was a new experience to see an Eskimo trying 
to accommodate himself to a bed. The warmth of the ward 
was objectionable. The additional heat of bedclothes was 
intolerable. Washed to a fine nut-brown, with their jet- 
black hair and large, dark eyes, they formed a most pleas- 
ing contrast to the white sheets on which they lay when 
we paid our first morning visit. Covering of any kind they 
had long disposed of, and even then they were perspiring 
and panting. Nature seems to have taught them what 
civilization has made us forget, — the value of fresh air. 

In a terribly fatal epidemic of typhoid fever in 1896, 1 had 
tried to persuade some of my patients to remain in their 
tents when very feverish. In one case I had endeavoured 
to enforce my ruling by removing the patient's garments. 
Such a trifling " impediment" had not daunted him. Why 
stay under cover when you are hot ? Next morning when 
I returned, I found him stark-naked, huddled up in the 
cold, waiting for the doctor and the ravished clothes. He 
eventually recovered, in spite of me. 

Nain, the fifth station, is ninety miles farther south, and 
accessible by mail steamer. It is a perfect harbour, en- 
tirely shut in from the sea by countless islands, great and 
small. Its beautiful bay runs inland over forty miles, 
and one can travel by steamer for a hundred miles south 
without once going into the open ocean. Nain is at once 
the head station of the Brethren, the seat of the Bishop, 
who is also a German consul, and is of the oldest standing. 
The well-tended vegetable patches, the tidy paths through 
the woods so long preserved, and now so lonely looking 
against the otherwise absolutely naked ground, the prim 
flower-gardens, and the orthodox tea-houses (with more 



232 LABRADOR 

often than not the now inappropriate picture of the 
Kaiser), combine to transport a visitor momentarily to 
Europe, to the German homes which these good men 
have left, never to return. 

I had the pleasure — a partly melancholy pleasure — 
of introducing the first gramophone to the attention of 
a venerable brother who had not visited his home for many 
years. As he drew near the room in which the machine 
was playing some musical record, I saw the unbidden tear 
roll down my dear old friend's cheek, as even that crude 
music irresistibly called to memory former happy days 
when the music of the Fatherland was all about him. 

Near Nain is a great outcrop of blue labradorite. The 
hunting and fishing near this station are also excellent at 
times, and there are many things to attract the visitor. 
But first amongst these are the hospitable Brethren and the 
neat congregations at their regular services, where the 
excellent singing and orchestral playing of the Eskimo men 
and women is a revelation to the stranger. 

This station is the head of the trade, too. For the Mis- 
sion is an industrial one, and therein, to my mind, lies its 
immense value. It not only tends to the mind and spirit, 
but it looks after the "vile body." Had it not been so 
during the last one hundred and fifty years, there would 
now be no bodies through which to get at souls. There 
can be no question the Moravians have so far saved the 
native population for Labrador. The more numerous 
Eskimo that once flourished between Hopedale, their south- 
ernmost Eskimo station, and Anticosti Island, are gone 
almost to a single man. Eskimo once were numerous on 
both sides the Straits of Belle Isle. At Battle and at Cart- 



THE MISSIONS 233 

wright in 1800 they were still numerous. Contact with 
white men has blotted them out like chalk from a black- 
board. 

I was intensely surprised to find by reference to their 
carefully kept registers from 1840 to 1890 that the con- 
gregations around all the stations had actually increased 
in numbers. It is not fair to estimate the numbers that 
should now exist on the coast by the average increase of 
Europeans, as some have done. In the wild state, untram- 
melled by civilization and unmodernized by missionaries, 
Eskimo can only exist in small numbers and scattered com- 
munities, anyhow. The casual reporter visiting Labrador 
has more than once severely criticised the trade methods 
of the Brethren, which involve comparative high prices on 
their goods. They have stigmatized them as robbers and 
oppressors. Indeed, they have been so misunderstood that 
their Conference has seriously considered abandoning their 
trading altogether. Were they to do so, there would, in 
a very brief time, be no need for their spiritual minis- 
trations. 

I do not believe any master of labour could possibly carry 
on industrial work like fishing and furring, for which the 
masters have to supply all gear, outfit, and provisions at 
their own risk, if they employed only Eskimo workmen. 

The fact is, they are not able to persevere, and though 
they are, man for man, far better educated than the men 
who come from hundreds of miles south and make a good 
living by fishing right at the Eskimo's own door, yet they 
cannot compare with the Newfoundland and white fisher- 
men for perseverance and what is known on this coast as 
"snap." An Eskimo does not get one fish for the other's 



234 LABRADOR 

ten. Thus the Moravians have been again and again 
saddled with debts sorely crippling their funds, for they 
assume a responsibility no ordinary master of labour does. 
They look after the poor, feed the infirm and helpless, tend 
the sick, educate the children, and, as well, minister to their 
spiritual needs, which involves up-keep of chapels, and all 
the attendant duties and expenses. They have recently 
altered their methods of trade. It is quite possible they 
might profitably be still further modernized, but no man 
need fear inquiring into this noble Mission who really is 
anxious for the extension of Christ's Kingdom. 

The magnificent salary of the individual worker, includ- 
ing the Bishop, is ^23 per annum, with dinner and tea found 
at a communal board, the wives taking it in turn each week 
to cook and superintend meals. The children at seven years 
of age, the most interesting period of child life, have to 
leave the parents, probably forever, to be educated at the 
Society's schools in England or Germany. It is scarcely 
necessary to say that the missionaries have no personal in- 
terest in the trade, and that their small income only clothes 
and provides absolute necessities for the families. The 
present trade manager of the whole Mission, for many years 
past my most beloved friend, has made many long journeys 
with me all along the coast. He is an excellent photog- 
rapher, sending the pictures home to help the deputation 
workers to raise the necessary funds, and he is but the type 
of all their men with whom I have been acquainted these 
twenty years past. Soon after my arrival at this station, 
I asked him if they kept photographic material in the store. 
After seeing the Eskimo brass band perform, it seemed 
natural they should perform also the simpler functions of a 



THE MISSIONS 235 

photographer. "No," he replied, "but I have a small 
private stock." " Would you sell me some printing paper? 
I have run out." "We may not sell privately," he 
replied, "but I shall be glad to give you half mine." "But 
that you cannot afford to do. You must let me at least 
defray the actual cost." "The Society gives us £23 a 
year," he said, "and that supplies all our needs. What 
do I want more money for ? We have everything we can 
possibly need." 

The stores, church, school, and mission house were 
burned in 1921 at the very time of their 150th anniver- 
sary, to the terrible set back of their beautiful work. 

Some ninety miles to the south again is Hopedale, the 
sixth station. It is the southern border of the tribe now, 
and one cannot visit the station without feeling forcibly 
that the fringe is ravelling out, and that the race in 
Labrador is facing its inevitable doom. Mixed with the 
dying, purer type, are an increasing and stronger element 
of half-breeds. It is in these that much of the hope for 
the future population of Labrador at present lies. Here 
one of the Brethren has had some medical training, and 
has, single-handed, done some excellent work in emer- 
gency cases. The Brethren here, also, have done a con- 
siderable amount of scientific work in the past, both in 
climatology, botany, and ornithology. 

The last Moravian station is at Makkovik, fifty miles 
south. It was only erected in 1900, and was put there in 
the hope of fostering the scattered half-breeds and settlers 
who are slowly beginning to populate that section of coast. 
It is a valuable stand for those travelling the coast in 
winter. It has now a small boarding school during winter. 



236 LABRADOR 

To no other people on earth does the lonely Labrador owe 
one-half the debt it does to these devoted servants of the 
Moravian Mission. 

The Methodist church is carrying on work among the 
settlers, with local headquarters for their mission at Rigolet. 
The Anglican church has, for many years, supported a mis- 
sion, with headquarters at Battle Harbour. 

The International Grenfell Association 

In the report of the Newfoundland Chamber of Com- 
merce for 1892, the following item appeared: — 

" A new feature worthy of mention in this report, affecting 
as it does, more or less, the comfort of twenty thousand to 
thirty thousand of our people, was the appearance on the 
Labrador coast of the Mission to Deep-sea Fishermen ship 
Albert, outfitted by a philanthropical society in England, 
unsectarian in its lines, and intended to convey skilled 
medical aid to our fishermen and provide to some extent 
for their mental and material wants. This essay has been 
an unqualified success, and has evoked from the recipients 
of its bounty expressions of deep gratitude. It is likely 
to result in well-organized cooperation by the Colony next 
season upon the lines along which the Mission ship is being 
worked." 

The Mission to Deep-sea Fishermen had, for some twenty 
years, been working among the great fleets that travel all 
over the North Sea. The Mission owned a dozen vessels, 
including one steamer. These were mostly fishing vessels, 
but in command of men who sought by word and deed to 
carry the Gospel of Christ to their comrades by the prac- 
tical messages of love of the "Good Samaritan." Four of 
the vessels had small hospitals on board, and each carried 



THE MISSIONS 237 

a doctor. The Mission had driven the liquor traffic off 
the sea, built homes at the seaports, and provided for 
religious services, for good reading, and for the care of those 
in trouble and want. The Mission Council, at the request 
of Sir Francis Hopwood, one of its members, had sent their 
medical superintendent to see if similar work were needed 
among the Bankers and Newfoundland fishermen. The 
Mission yawl Albert, of one hundred and fifty-one tons bur- 
den, sailed out, and after a season among the fishermen 
of the Labrador coast, called into St. John's to report be- 
fore sailing back to England. The governor of the colony 
called a meeting at Government House of all the principal 
men, to receive the report. As a result, on the proposal 
of the Prime Minister, the following resolution was passed 
unanimously : — 

" That this meeting, representing the principal merchants 
and traders carrying on the fisheries, especially on the 
Labrador coast, and others interested in the welfare of this 
colony, desires to tender its warmest thanks to the direct- 
ors of the Deep-sea Mission for sending their hospital ship 
Albert to visit the settlement on the Labrador coast. 

"Much of our fishing industry is carried on in regions 
beyond the ordinary reach of medical aid, or of charity, and 
it is with the deepest sense of gratitude that this meeting 
learns of the amount of medical and surgical work done. . . . 

" This meeting also desires to express the hope that the 
directors may see their way to continue the work thus begun, 
and should they do so, they may be assured of the earnest 
cooperation of all classes of this community." 

The government of Newfoundland promised to excuse 
the Mission from paying any duties on bringing in goods, 
except any for sale. 



238 LABRADOR 

With open water in spring the Albert returned, carrying 
two additional doctors and nurses, together with fittings 
and drugs for two small hospitals. The first stationed 
at Battle Harbour was the gift of a merchant. The gov- 
ernment of Newfoundland supplied a well-skilled pilot 
for the ship, and excused all dues of every kind. 

The second hospital was erected at Indian Harbour 
200 miles north and a smart steam-launch supplied for 
use in the remote corners. 

At the present time the Society has six small hospitals : 
one at Harrington on the Canadian Labrador, one at St. 
Anthony on the northeast coast of Newfoundland, one at 
Pitteys Island, Newfoundland, one at Northwest River 
N. Labrador, and the original two at Battle Harbour and 
Indian Harbour. Indian Harbour is situated on an island 
in the entrance to Hamilton Inlet, two hundred miles 
north of the Strait of Belle Isle; Battle Harbour, just 
where the Strait meets the Atlantic Ocean. 

An experience of thirty years of work at sea among 
fishermen has proved for me that the brotherhood of the 
sea, and possibly the frequent looking of death in the 
face, can transcend the animosity engendered between 
man and man by sectarianism on the land. The r arson 
d'etre of the Mission is to commend to men who daily 
face the perils and privations of the sea, the Gospel of 
Christ as the practical rule of life by commending it in 
exactly those practical services its workers would desire 
in their circumstances. It labours to form no church. 
It seeks to inculcate no submission to any theories or 
shibboleths. It aims at adherence to no intellectual 
dogma. 




St. Anthony Hospital 




Interior of St. Anthony Hospital 



THE MISSIONS 239 

No continuous presentment of Christ's evangel by hu- 
man agency can ever hope to be free from deserving criti- 
cism. In an environment where sectarianism is still 
mediaeval, opposition to Christian work of an unsectarian 
nature is inevitable. The staff of this Mission have felt 
it part of their privilege and duty to endeavour to induce 
new social conditions, though that involved conflict with 
previously existing powers. They have also endeavoured 
to inaugurate enterprises which appeared to them truer 
forms of charitable work than the easy but ever recurring 
distribution of clothes and nourishing food to people who 
only needed saving from a system that was alone responsible 
for their nakedness and hunger. When the Gospel comes 
in conflict with what some consider the "real business of 
life/' — that is, money-making, — it should be prepared for 
hostility. The following brief table illustrates the inter- 
pretation which the Mission, with its limited capacities, 
has considered most likely to commend the Gospel in the 
circumstances prevailing in Labrador : — 

1892. The hospital vessel Albert sailed from Eng- 
land with one doctor in charge. He reported nine 
hundred cases of sickness and accident that would 
not have received treatment but for the visit of the 
ship. 

1893. Battle Harbour hospital was presented by 
friends in St. John's, Newfoundland, and opened during 
the summer under a qualified nurse and doctor. The 
launch Princess May was added to enable the ship to do 
more w r ork. The great need for social service was recog- 
nized. The work of providing wood fuel for the steamer 
even being a factor of value. 



240 LABRADOR 

1894. Indian Harbour hospital was opened for the 
summer, and for the first time Battle Harbour hospital 
was kept open in winter. The doctor, with dogs and 
sledges, travelled eighteen hundred miles of coast during 
the winter. 

1895. The sailing hospital was replaced by the 
steamer Sir Donald, the gift of Sir Donald A. Smith, 
who had lived many years in Labrador. Owing to 
losing her propeller on a shoal she was towed to St. 
John's for repairs. 

1896. A small cooperative store was started at Red 
Bay in the Strait of Belle Isle, to help the settlers to escape 
the " truck system" of trade, and the consequent loss of 
independence and thrift. Four other cooperative stores 
have since been opened, with very beneficial results to the 
poorest. The Sir Donald was carried out from her harbour 
by the winter ice, and found far at sea, still frozen in, by 
the seal hunters. She had to be sold. 

1897. The steam-launch Julia Sheridan, given by a 
Toronto lady, replaced the Sir Donald. A large Mission 
hall was attached to Indian Harbour hospital for the use 
of the fishermen. Two thousand patients were treated. 
Some orphan children were taken to America. The doctors 
were appointed magistrates for Labrador, which enabled 
them to help in several cases of right against might. 

1899. Largely through the munificence of the Mission's 
staunch friend, Lord Strathcona, the Canadian High 
Commissioner, the steel hospital steamer Strathcona was 
built at Dartmouth, England, and fitted with every avail- 
able modern appliance. At the request of the settlers, 
a doctor wintered in north Newfoundland and travelled 



THE MISSIONS 241 

all around the north coast. The people cut, hauled out, 
and erected the frame for a hospital at St. Anthony. 

1900. The Strathcona steamed out to Labrador. The 
settlers on the Newfoundland shore of the Strait of Belle 
Isle completed the hospital at St. Anthony. A coopera- 
tive store was started at Brehat. 

1901. A small cooperative lumber mill was opened 
with the purpose of helping the settlers of the poorest 
district, who often faced semi-starvation, to find remun- 
erative work in winter. The schooner Cooperator was pur- 
chased and rebuilt by the people to assist in the business 
of the cooperative stores. 

1902. A new wing was added to Battle Harbour hospital, 
with a fine convalescent room and a new operating room. 
Indian Harbour hospital was also considerably enlarged. 
Two thousand seven hundred and seventy-four patients 
received treatment, one hundred and ten of these being 
in-patients in the little hospitals. The launch Julia Sheri- 
dan was chartered by the government and was directed 
by one of the medical officers to suppress an outbreak 
of smallpox. Some destitute children were taken to 
Canada. 

1903. Some new outbuildings were added to the In- 
dian Harbour hospital, and a mortuary and store were 
built at Battle Harbour hospital. The third and fourth 
cooperative stores were started at West St. Modiste 
and at Flower's Cove to encourage cash dealing and 
thrift. 

The Princess May went out of commission, and was 
sold. Some children were taken to Newfoundland. The 
only licensed house in Labrador was closed, the owner 



242 LABRADOR 

being sent to jail for the crime of barratry. The Mis- 
sion superintendent accepted the position of agent for 
Lloyd's. 

1904. A new doctor's house was built at Battle Har- 
bour to enable the station to remain open all winter. 
A motor-launch replaced the more expensive steamer 
Julia Sheridan. An orphanage was built at St. An- 
thony hospital to accommodate fifteen children. A 
building was also added for teaching loom work and 
general carpentering with lathe work, and a teacher 
engaged. 

1905. A doctor was appointed at the request of the 
people on the Canadian Labrador, with headquarters at 
Harrington, near Cape Whittle, on the north side of the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. The first schooners were built 
at the lumber mill, which is now run cooperatively by 
the people themselves. During the summer two con- 
sulting surgeons from Boston joined the hospital steamer 
to help in the work. Through the generosity of Mr. 
Andrew Carnegie, between thirty and forty small port- 
able libraries, each containing from fifty to one hun- 
dred books, were distributed along the coast. A fox 
farm was started in the hope of inducing a profit- 
able industry in the breeding of the more valuable 
furs. 

1906. Through the help of friends in Montreal and 
Toronto, a new hospital and a doctor's house were built at 
Harrington, and a second launch, called the Northern Mes- 
senger, was given for the work there and new hickory 
sledges, the wood for which is not obtainable in the north. 
Some new buildings were erected at St. Anthony, including 



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: 





A Visitor from the North 



THE MISSIONS 243 

some small farm out-buildings, and some land taken up 
from the Newfoundland government with a view to trying 
to introduce cattle. In connection with the cooperative 
store at Flower's Cove, an industry of making sealskin 
boots has sprung up, and fifteen hundred pairs were 
exported this summer (1906). Around these small 
industries it is possible to congregate women and 
children in the winter for the purpose of better 
education. This year a grant of $500 per annum to 
each hospital was made by the Newfoundland gov- 
ernment. 

1907. A new wharf with stores for clothing and for 
coal, and a large mission room, were added to Battle 
Harbour. The gifts of warm garments could thus be 
rationally given out against work done. Funds, including 
a $5000 grant from the Canadian government, were 
raised, and three hundred reindeer with Lapp attendants 
were imported, with the hope of starting a regular in- 
dustry on the lines of that so successful in Alaska. An- 
gora goats were presented by friends in the United States, 
and were brought to the settlements; it is hoped that 
these animals will increase and yield the wool for a new 
weaving industry. Several volunteers joined the staff; 
in the number were the lady in charge of the orphanage, 
the electrical engineer in charge of the general mechanical 
work, and a teacher for night school and library work. 
The fourth hospital was kept open by a volunteer doctor 
from Harvard University, and volunteer nurses from 
England. A highly experienced teacher of "arts and 
crafts" took charge of the industrial work at St. Anthony 
this year. 



244 LABRADOR 

A large new schooner was built at the mill, and a 

Gloucester schooner, the Lorna Doone, purchased in 

Boston. A volunteer doctor was stationed at the large 

summer fishery at Blanc Sablon. Trained nurses from 

the Johns Hopkins hospital took charge of districts on 

each side of the Strait of Belle Isle; nurses teaching 

sanitation and tending the sick. A skilled teacher was 

placed at St. Anthony and another at L'Anse Amour. 

Because of the increasing consulting and operating work, 

an additional surgeon was added to the staff working 

either on the hospital ship or at St. Anthony. For this 

work Dr. J. Mason Little, of Boston, volunteered. Mr. 

W. G. Lindsay, of Queenstown, Ireland, also volunteer, 

took charge of the reindeer industry. The growth of the 

medical work is shown by the following summary of 

cases treated in 1907: 

In-patients, 193. 

Out-patients, 4720. 

Operations under general anaesthetics, 80. 

A doctor's house was built at St. Anthony. A new motor- 
launch was given in Washington for the doctor's use, and 
navigated down to the coast by volunteers from Yale Uni- 
versity. Several additional volunteer nurses and workers 
gave their aid during the open season. A large cooperative 
store was started at St. Anthony. Electric power and 
electrical therapeutic apparatus were there installed. A 
permanent nursing centre was built at Forteau. 

The condition of the fishermen and their families in the 
far-off places, even of Newfoundland itself, are described 
in many places by many people. I may quote here from 
Admiral Sir W. R. Kennedy, well known as an author, and 



THE MISSIONS 245 

well able to judge, as he spent much time visiting per- 
sonally from place to place when patrolling with his ships 
in the western part of the North Atlantic. He writes : — 

" On our visit round the island we met with sights 
enough to sicken one, and we felt ashamed to think that 
these poor creatures were British subjects like ourselves. 
On part of Labrador the people were actually starving last 
winter, owing to a bad fishing season, and many would 
have starved altogether had it not been for a steamer 
wrecked on their coast, loaded with bullock and flour." 

The same observer, writing in 1881, says: — 

" These poor people, ground down as they are by the 
detestable ' truck system,' live and die hopelessly in debt, 
living from hand to mouth without a shilling to call their 
own. Possibly education may in time awaken them to a 
sense of their degradation, but at present there seems no 
remedy for this evil. A bad season throws hundreds of 
these unfortunates upon the government, and no less than 
$100,000 is paid out annually in pauper relief among a 
total population of 180,000." 

On my own first cruise along the Labrador coast, coming 
straight from a happier land, I was deeply impressed with 
the ruling terror of poverty and semi-starvation implied 
by the conditions then prevailing. The nakedness of the 
people was an insistent and deplorable feature ever facing 
the doctor as his calling made him a witness of the mean 
material, miserable flannelet or cotton, within the reach of 
a folk living in a subarctic climate. The wretched monot- 
ony of their cheap (truly the most expensive) foods ; the 
small, bare, squalid huts; the ignorance and apathy of 
men and women; the absolute neglect of the crudest sanita- 



246 LABRADOR 

tion, were all seen to be parts of a great, cruel, vicious 
circle in which these thousands were living. Neverthe- 
less, from the very first, I was not a pessimist. With 
vastly more certainty to-day, I hold to the view that 
all these people can be freed and elevated, and a sterling 
race of workers happily preserved. 

The International Grenfell Association has set itself 
to help solve this problem, not merely by telling these 
men of the tenets of the Christian faith, as new facts of 
which they have never heard. The solution appears to 
the Mission to lie rather in example than in precept. 
The method aimed at is' to illustrate in practice the atti- 
tude Christ would assume to-day in the varying phases 
of the fisherman's life. 

From the inception of this work no man has, therefore, 
ever been engaged in the capacity of priest or clergyman 
though two splendid young Oxford graduates have taken 
up Labrador and North Newfoundland as their parishes 
with the consent of the Bishop. The staff has been 
always confined to laymen and to women specially 
trained. 

To the sick the message has been, hospitals, power- 
launches carrying medicine-cases, and in winter well- 
equipped dog-sleighs, and many thousands of miles cov- 
ered in visits from Natasquahan in the Gulf to Nain 
on the northeast coast, and from Port Sanders on 
the west to Whooping Harbour on the east coast of 
Newfoundland with nursing stations and the hospital 
steamer. 

Within reach of the naked, clothing has been placed, 
their independence being carefully preserved by work 



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Mission S. S. " Strathcona " 



THE MISSIONS 247 

demanded in return wherever the recipients were able- 
bodied. 

In relation to equity, complaints have been brought 
before the medical officer as honorary magistrate, and as 
far as possible settled; claims considered and as far as 
possible adjusted, over the three thousand miles travelled 
by the hospital steamers, which has had many times to 
resolve itself into a court of justice. 

In view of the terrible ignorance of ordinary health pre- 
cautions that was costing the people so dearly, and in re- 
lation to the treatment of young children and methods of 
sanitation, printed rules and catechisms have not only 
been distributed, but taught from end to end of 
the district. The medical officers are encouraged by 
the steadily increasing observance of sanitary rules. 
Half a dozen specially-trained nutritional teachers also 
work along the coast each summer holding baby 
clinics. 

To aid in destroying the oppressive " truck system" of 
trade, which keeps its poor victims in a sort of apathetic 
satisfaction with a hopeless state of slavery, cooperative 
distributive stores were established, which have paid 
good dividends, cheapened articles of necessity, and 
brought also within reach of the people an opportunity 
to become free of debt and servile dependence on those 
from whom they obtained supplies. 1 

1 Sir Henry McCallum, a recent governor of Newfoundland, in a 
private letter dated in 1901, says: "One thing you will be rejoiced to 
hear, the ministry has introduced legislation for bringing into force the 
Truck Act of 1831. This is one of the most important steps in the history 
of Newfoundland. By the Truck Act, supplies cannot discharge a debt 



248 LABRADOR 

In relation to ignorance: where once scarcely a single 
settler could read or write, and where ignorance always 
meant serious disadvantage in economic relations, travel- 
ling loan libraries have been established. A large school 
at St. Anthony and some ten or twelve small summer 
schools, have been established. 

To the absolute helplessness of orphan childhood 
there can be only one Christian sermon; that was first 
preached by carrying the child to another country 
where it could be fed and clothed, and to-day by a 
large orphanage to accommodate sixty children in 
North Newfoundland, and one with forty-five children 
in Labrador. 

Some of the poverty caused by the impossibility of 
obtaining remunerative work has been relieved through 
the industry of the lumber mill, through the industries 
of schooner, barge, and boat building, sealskin boot mak- 
ing, and through other small efforts to use the country's 
own resources. The I. A. A. has now also a fine indus- 
trial department where hooked mats, homespun, toys, 
embroidered skin and grass basket work are made, many 
thousands of dollars worth being sold every year. A 
regular tannery has also been established, giving both 
labor and better boots and moccasins. 

or balance. Not only is the supplier liable to severe punishment, but the 
debt or balance still holds good in spite of supplies having been given, 
and can be sued for. Also, if in the absence of shops or passing suppliers 
necessaries of life have to be given by employees, they must be at cost 
price for cash, the price for outfits being a definite percentage above 
St. John's prices to cover cost of freight and charges. The trouble is, 
however, we have good laws but bad customs, and poor execution of 
law." 



THE MISSIONS 249 

Open hostility to the liquor traffic has always been 
the attitude of the Mission. Illicit rumsellers have 
been ferreted out and fined, or otherwise punished. 
In St. John's itself, where fifty saloons have pro- 
vided the entertainment for the thousands of our 
Labrador fishermen who resort there, a large tem- 
perance institute on modern lines has been erected. 
Two years ago the whole Colony went "Prohibi- 
tion." 

In the great need of milk for children, need of meat 
to ward off scurvy, and need for an additional 
source of revenue for the people, the best advocate 
for the message may be the introduction of reindeer; 
and a herd of three hundred of these animals was 
introduced into Labrador and Newfoundland. This 
has since been turned over to the Canadian Govern- 
ment. 

The actually starving have been admitted to hospital 
for feeding pure and simple. On many occasions the 
homeless and travelling strangers have been entertained. 
As far as possible, the hospitals have always stood for 
hotels as well. 

That Christ would interpret the love of the Father in 
Heaven to His children on this coast merely by the erec- 
tion of churches, the duplication of religious services, 
the insisting on an orthodox intellectual attitude by 
doctrinal methods, has not been the premise on which 
the work has been developed. To say that the re- 
sults are imperfect is to say the work is human work. 
To say that visible progress, acknowledged progress, 
has been made, is a simple statement of fact. We 



250 LABRADOR 

are working for the time when no " mission" need work 
among these men of Labrador, for they will be self- 
sustained and powerful in their simple, wholesome life 
by the sea. 



CHAPTER IX 

REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 
By W. T. Grenfell 

It has been shown that almost all species of deer are 
susceptible to domestication, and that under intelligent 
management they can be raised for a profit. Venison is 
chemically almost identical with beef, and when in good 
condition is fully as nutritious. It is palatable, and fetches 
a good price in the market, seventy-five cents per pound 
being no uncommon price in the larger cities. The horns 
and hide are also valuable. 

The range of many of the most valuable deer was once 
far wider than at present, and there are vast sections of 
the earth now lying useless which could with ease support 
herds of these valuable food-producing animals, if anything 
approaching the energy and capital expended on the im- 
provements and propagation of vegetable food-supplies 
were devoted to them. 

In the course of ages the upheavals and subsidences of 
the earth's surface have made new countries with environ- 
ments suitable for deer; yet these lands are untenanted 
by deer solely because large tracts of water have isolated 
the lands and left barriers impassable for the animals. 
In this way vast areas now lie vacant which could 

251 



252 LABRADOR 

nurture many of these animals for the service of man. 
Peary's discovery of the white reindeer which are main- 
taining themselves far north of the Arctic Circle, in spite 
of the almost Stygian darkness of the long winters and 
in spite of the minimal food-supply available, shows that 
even when Nature displays the very least generosity, 
animals of this family possess a phenomenal fitness to 
survive. Moreover, it has also been shown by countless 
experiments with many species of animals, that by careful 
treatment of those introduced into new environments, 
traits can in time be developed that will enable the species 
to flourish in the new home. 

The natural distribution of the reindeer is almost entirely 
limited to the subarctic regions. Wet and cold offer no 
terrors to them ; the humblest lichen affords them a source 
of nutriment ; only the very deepest snowfalls can prevent 
their digging down to their food-supply; and they can 
range and multiply so far north that even their one enemy, 
the timber-wolf, cannot reach them. The wonderful hoofs 
of these members of the ungulate family are faced with an 
ever renewing hard exterior, which, like the beaver's tooth, 
is only made sharper by being used, and which enables 
the deer to cut down even through snow protected with an 
icy covering. At the same time they possess large dew- 
claws, or hooflets, which increase the spread of their large 
splay-feet, and enable the deer to travel and escape danger 
over snow in which any of our common cattle would be 
hopelessly engulfed and destroyed. 

The experiments of introducing domestic reindeer into 
Alaska were first undertaken by the famous missionary, 
Dr. Sheldon Jackson ; and have been since assumed and 



REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 253 

prosecuted to a marvellously successful issue by the United 
States government. These experiments have conclusively 
proved the adaptability of this particular animal to do- 
mestication in the Arctic for the service of mankind. Along 
the sea-shore, especially, the natives have readily taken to 
the task of propagating and using them, and already whole 
settlements are being supplied from these new herds. One 
Eskimo woman surnamed " Reindeer Mary" has even risen 
to wealth, owning many hundreds of deer, and., what is more 
important, shown herself capable in this way of consider- 
able intellectual development. She thus indicates one line 
at any rate, along which the natives of Alaska may hope 
to escape extinction through the increasing contact and 
competition with the advancing white men. 

Few other animals on the earth's surface offer as much 
to man with so little outlay. With scarcely any aid, 
races of men can subsist on what these beasts alone can 
provide. For transport they have been shown, under 
right circumstances, to be able to compete with the Eskimo 
dog in speed and endurance. On the Alaskan tundra, 
where the snowfall is much like that of Labrador, they have 
been an unqualified success. On journeys they can find 
their own food by the way — an item most important, for 
the dogs are obliged to carry this additional, and by no 
means inconsiderable, burden with them. Reindeer are 
now used not only for packing over open land uncovered 
with snow in summer-time, when dogs are entirely useless, 
but they are in regular use for running the United States 
mail service in the depth of an Arctic winter. Geldings 
are said to be far more readily trained to harness than 
stags, and are easier to keep in good physical condition. 



254 LABRADOR 

At a pinch, one's steeds may be killed and eaten with 
relish, while the carcass, where meat supplies are scarce, is 
always of incomparable value. The tongues and kidneys 
form great delicacies, and the tongues may be smoked for ex- 
port. A good-sized stag will weigh three hundred pounds, 
and has for meat alone fetched $50 in the Alaskan markets. 
The large, thickly haired skin of caribou or of the Lapland 
reindeer is invaluable for many purposes, — for boots, 
clothing, sleeping-bags, tents, and blankets. These skins 
need scarcely any preparatory treatment. Dehaired and 
dressed, they make most satisfactory clothing for use in 
cold climates. The sleek, dark-brown hair of the early 
fall affords a very beautiful material for ladies' jackets 
or motor coats, and picked skins for such purposes should 
well repay exportation ; two dollars apiece is the present 
local price for Labrador deer skins. Some of our deer have 
snow-white skins in winter, and the hair is as thick as a 
cocoanut fibre mat. 

Moccasins manufactured from the thinner deer skins make 
the warmest foot-gear known. The heavier stag skins fur- 
nish admirable light, soft, flexible over-clothes. They are 
perfectly wind proof, and, when dressed for use, fetch fifty 
cents to one dollar per pound weight . Stretched, undressed, 
they are sold by the pound as parchment ; this, cut into 
strips, is rolled up, and sold as babbage, out of which all 
the fillings for snow-shoes are made. Of this, also, are made 
the lashings for our sledges and the harness for our dogs. 
The tough thongs show remarkable elastic strength as 
they feel the jarring and jolting of the rough trails. The 
very tendons that are useless as food are amongst our most 
valuable acquisitions, affording our women all the sewing 



REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 255 

material they need for making boots, skin-boats (or kayaks), 
and clothing. These animal tendons are taken and dried, 
and fetch from ten to fifty cents for each animal. They 
strip easily into single fibres, and these separate threads 
form a strong sewing material, which resists water, and yet, 
when used in boots intended to be water-tight, swells up 
as soon as the boots are immersed in moisture. In this 
way leakage through the needle holes is prevented. The 
tendons do not rot easily, nor do they tear the skin sub- 
stances, for they contract and expand with that material. 
Even the horns and hoofs are valuable, and furnish many 
of the household essentials of the natives. Some of these 
various manufactured products can be exported to the 
European markets. Reindeer may thus largely increase the 
earning capacity of any region, by converting its unsalable 
material into valuable products. The fresh rich milk of 
the does in the summer has also supplied us with what is 
a vital necessity, and one which was obtainable in Labrador 
in no other way ; while the excellent and easily made cheeses 
afford a method of storing the nutriment in a palatable 
and assimilable form without any necessary outlay for a 
preserving plant. 

Reindeer have shown themselves to be regular breeders, 
comparing more than favourably with ordinary cattle stock. 
Reindeer herds may be expected to at least double them- 
selves in three years. Does will breed the second year, 
and after that with great regularity bear one fawn as 
a rule, though occasionally two. Only a comparatively 
few stags are needed to serve a large number of does. So 
large were our own Newfoundland fawns at the end of 
their first season, in this our first year of experiment, that 



256 LABRADOR 

many of the yearlings were covered by the stags. The 
domesticated herds in Siberia have thus increased to such 
an extent that it is possible to buy full-grown animals at 
fifty cents per head, and Mr. Vanderlip, in his Search for 
a Siberian Klondike, states that he could purchase them 
as low as twenty-five cents a head as food for his dogs. 
Similarly, George Kennan tells me that he bought many 
at fifty cents apiece for dog food in Siberia. It has even 
been stated that the fecundity of reindeer may be liable to 
become a positive nuisance. 

In the bot-fly the deer has an enemy which greatly 
worries him, but which does not appear seriously to injure 
him. The fly pierces the outer skin and leaves the egg 
underneath, where the larva grows and develops through 
the winter, in probably the only place where it would not 
freeze. In the spring the fly hatches out and leaves its 
birthplace. These large bot larvae projecting under the 
skin are picked off and eaten by the Alaskans as a choice 
delicacy. In the ethmoid cells of these deer, at the root 
of the nose close to the skull, there are also always to be 
found a number of large maggots in various stages of de- 
velopment. These give rise to a coryza, fortunately not 
fatal, which leads the animal to sneeze out the larvae in 
great quantities. We have otherwise found no disease 
likely to trouble the imported reindeer in Newfound- 
land. 

During thirty years of medical mission work on the 
coast of North Newfoundland and Labrador, I have dis- 
covered that one out of every three of our deaths on the 
coast is due to tuberculosis ; that one out of every three na- 
tive babies died before reaching the age of one year. More- 



REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 257 

over, rickets, scurvy, multiple neuritis, blindness from 
corneal ulcerations in marasmic children, and other diseases 
of insufficient nourishment were rife among a people en- 
joying a bracing, pure air, undefiled by human or other 
exhalations, and in a country entirely free of endemic 
diseases. There were no milk-producing animals on all 
our coasts except a couple of cows and a handful of goats. 
The trading system and the people's poverty put even the 
tinned article out of the question. We were wont to see 
ill-fed mothers, without milk to suckle their babes, chewing 
hard bread, and thus after predigesting it in their own mouths, 
trying to maintain life in their wizened offspring, till they 
should attain the age at which nature furnishes them with 
the salivary glands, and enables them to convert "loaf" 
into the assimilable sugars for themselves. 

Milk, milk, milk, seemed to us the great cry from the 
coast. It seemed impossible to supply it from either 
sheep or cows or goats on any large scale, since every 
family is obliged to maintain at least half a dozen dogs 
for hauling fuel and for travelling, and thus every village 
had a throng of fifty to one hundred of these hungry, half- 
fed beasts. The dogs, even at long distances from their 
own homes, go hunting exactly like wolves in large packs, 
and have killed the cattle as fast as it has been introduced. 
Thus it seemed impossible that we could maintain cattle 
and dogs together, and our medical staff had been compelled 
to do the best it could with a scanty supply of tinned milk. 
In any case, cows and goats need feeding in winter, and 
imported hay cost us $40 a ton. A cow eats two tons, even 
on a ration diet during our long winter, and it would 
cost us therefore twice as much as the cow was worth 



258 LABRADOR 

for her winter hay. All our people are forced by the neces- 
sity of their poverty to resort to the outer seaboard during 
the whole of our four warm months. There the Arctic 
current renders us liable to sudden frosts at night, and so 
gardening is unremunerative. Only one or two of our 
salmon-fishers who remain up the inlets all summer can 
collect the plentiful wild hay that grows there. The ex- 
periments of the Grand River Pulp Company in raising 
green oats or barley for fodder on the shore of Hamilton 
Inlet have been successful, but do not bear directly on the 
problem of procuring milk supplies on the outer coast, where 
most of our people live. 

It was in this dilemma that I turned to the Rev. Sheldon 
Jackson, to learn the results and prospects of his experi- 
ments with Siberian and Lapland reindeer in Alaska, 
which is a somewhat similar coast, and I went to Wash- 
ington to get our information at first hand. Meanwhile 
Sir William MacGregor, governor of Newfoundland, collected 
and sent to Kew Botanical Gardens specimens of all our 
mosses and lichens, and received from them a completely 
favourable report as to the suitability of pur most abundant 
forms of vegetation to support these deer. Favouring the 
conviction that we were plunging into no unwise specula- 
tion, we had the evidence of the abundant natural herds 
of caribou, known to exist in the barren lands west of 
Hudson Bay, as well as the more direct evidence of the com- 
paratively large herds of caribou on the Labrador plateau, 
from which our native Indians still draw almost their 
entire food-supply. Moreover, we are familiar with the 
large numbers of caribou maintaining themselves against 
all odds (including the extensive forest fires) in Newfound- 



REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 259 

land. These deer are of the same species as our domestic 
reindeer (Cervus tarandus), though of slightly different 
varieties, the barren-land caribou and the Canadian wood- 
land caribou being about the same size, but both of rather 
smaller growth than the Newfoundland woodland variety. 
This difference might reasonably be accredited to ages of 
access to a superior food-supply, and this has been one 
factor to influence us in keeping temporarily our small 
experimental herd on the south side of the Straits of Belle 
Isle. The herds in the Canadian barren-land are phe- 
nomenally large. The photographs taken by Mr. J. B. 
Tyrrell show interminable serried ranks on the march, re- 
sembling with their long, slight horns a vast army of spear- 
men. In 1909 a herd of half a million of these barren-land 
caribou was reported from Dawson City as travelling along 
the Tanana River beyond Sixty-mile River. The pro- 
cession was described as twenty miles wide. 

It seems to have been shown that deer, freed from the 
fear of man, have a great predilection for associating with 
domestic cattle. In New England, once they learn they 
have nothing to fear from man, deer will come down among 
the cattle almost into the farm-yard. Thus, the further 
hope that the young of the wild species might be cut out, 
corralled, and raised with a domestic herd without any fear 
of their again returning to the wild, seems to be assured. 
Also it has been shown that the two varieties can inter- 
breed successfully. On one occasion a Newfoundland cari- 
bou joined our herd; it so closely resembled our own deer 
that an English friend tried to knock up the rifle of the 
Lapp herder who was shooting it from twenty yards away. 
Again, two of these same caribou joined a section of the 



260 LABRADOR 

herd sold by us to Mr. Mayson Beeton of Grand Lake and 
remained with his animals two days, coming in and out of 
his corral with the rest, while three of his tame ones wan- 
dered off for three weeks with their wild cousins and then 
returned, as if preferring the less strenuous life. 

Encouraged by all we had heard, we set to work, and col- 
lected a sum of $10,000 by public subscription, chiefly by 
the help of the Boston Transcript, and in addition the Cana- 
dian Federal Department of Agriculture voted $5000. The 
task of purchasing and shipping the deer and of securing 
their herders was intrusted to Mr. Francis Wood of London, 
England, who voluntarily proceeded to Norway and Lap- 
land for the purpose. Three hundred deer were eventually 
purchased. Of these, two hundred and fifty were does of 
an age to bear fawns in the spring, and fifty were stags; 
they were to be delivered on the beach at Altenfjord on 
the north coast of Lapland in lat. 71° north, at a cost of 
$8.50 apiece. 1 A contract for thirty tons of the moss 
known as reindeer moss, or Iceland moss (rangifereria) , was 
arranged. The moss was to be gathered and stored on 
the highlands to await transport by the deer themselves, 
on the pulkas, or native sledges. The contract with the 
Laplander agent ran as follows: — 

" Israel N. Mella acknowledges hereby having sold to Mr. 
Francis H. Wood, of London, 250 female reindeer, three 
years old, sound, fresh, prime deer, for a sum of 30 Kr. 
each delivered on board the ship in Bugten, Altenfjord; 
also 25 tame four-year-old drawing deer for the sum of 

1 On board the steamer ready for sea, they cost $16-74 per head; 
landed in Labrador, they cost $51.49 per head. 



UEINDEER FOR LABRADOR 263 

Kr. 40 each; also 25 three-year-old buck deer (oxen), 
price 35 Kr. each, all the deer prime, all the deer delivered 
on the ship at Bugten between November 25th and 30th, 
1907. Also 500 loads of reindeer moss, at 150 kilograms 
per load, at the sum of 12 Kr. per load, delivered on board 
the ship at Bugten between November 25th and 30th, 1907. 
Also eight good trained reindeer dogs, 25 Kr. each. I 
undertake to procure four Lapp families for the expedition 
on the lowest terms possible; for the work of yarding, 
taking care of the deer ; also food for the deer until the ship 
comes, between November 25th and 30th, there shall be 
paid me (Mr. Mella) Kr. 500. In the Kr. 500 is included the 
engaging of the families. I acknowledge by this having 
received for 500 loads of reindeer moss, Kr. 6,000 ; also half 
the purchase price of the reindeer, Kr. 4,688; also there 
shall be paid to me (Mr. Mella) the advances made to the 
families, and the remaining half-price of the purchase money 
of the reindeer in Bugten on the delivery of the reindeer 
and the moss on the ship. 

" (Signed) Israel N. Mella. 

" Witness : Dina Aune. July 29th, 1907." 

Unfortunately the winter was very late, and it was im- 
possible to haul until after Christmas, — a fact which made 
tonnage for sea transport much harder to secure and much 
more expensive. Indeed, it was only with extreme diffi- 
culty a steamer was secured at all to carry the deer so late 
in the year. She had to be fitted with stalls to prevent the 
deer being thrown about and damaged in rough weather. 
A contract was entered upon to carry the herd of three 
hundred animals from Lapland to Labrador for $8262. 
A bonus of fifty cents per head was to be paid the captain 
for every animal that was landed in good condition. 



262 LABRADOR 

Following is the essential matter of the charter contract, 

London, 6th July, 1907. 

It is hereby agreed between the Owners of the good steamer 
"Anita" and Francis H. Wood, 181 Queen Victoria St., 
London, Charterers, that the said Owners will, between 25th 
November and 30th November, place at the disposal of the 
said Charterers at a port in NORTH NORWA Y in charterers 7 
option, to be declared in good time before steamer's readiness, 
the above-mentioned steamer for the conveyance of three hun- 
dred head of reindeer and fodder, which the steamer shall 
be fitted to carry under experienced Captain's supervision 
to the satisfaction of Charterers 7 reasonable requirements to 
prevent mortality. 

The Reindeer are to be supplied to the steamer as quickly as 
they can be received by the steamer. 

As soon as the reindeer fodder and cattlemen are on board the 
steamer is to proceed to ST. ANTHONY, Cape Bauld, New- 
foundland, to land the reindeer; afterwards proceeding to 
Lewis port to land 50 deer. 

It is understood that the Harbour accommodation at both 
ST. ANTHONY and Lewis port is good and easy of access. 

For the carrying of the reindeer the steamer is to receive a 
lump sum freight of ^1700 {seventeen hundred pounds) 
sterling. 

Four cattlemen (Laplanders) are to be provided by the 
charterers. Owners are to provide sufficient additional cattle- 
men to assist in looking after the reindeer on the way out: 

The steamer is to be fitted under experienced Captain's super- 
vision to the satisfaction of charterers' agents' reasonable 
requirements to prevent mortality, for the conveyance of the 
reindeer by Owners at their expense and in their time. 



REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 263 

£1300 of the freight to be paid in cash in London on completion 
of loading in Norway; balance of freight to be paid in cash 
in London on receipt of cable advices that the reindeer have 
been landed. 

Charterers are to provide sufficient food for the reindeer. 
The steamer is to supply the requisite fresh water for the 
reindeer in accordance with charterers' reasonable require- 
ments ; also food and sleeping accommodation for the cattle- 
attendants. 

Should ST. ANTHONY or Lewis port be inaccessible by 
reason of ice on steamer's arrival, the whole of the cargo is 
to be landed at whichever port is free of ice. If both ports are 
inaccessible on account of ice, the steamer shall proceed to 
the nearest safe open port, where the cargo is to be landed 
and freight to be paid as if the steamer had performed the 
voyage as above. 

Owners not to be responsible for mortality. 

The steamer to have liberty to call at any ports in any order, 
to sail without pilots, and to tow and assist vessels in distress, 
and to deviate for the purpose of saving life or property. 

It is agreed by charterers that the ports of loading and dis- 
charge shall be such as steamer can reach, always being afloat, 
the animals being brought to, and taken from, alongside by 
charterers, steamer to go alongside any accessible and safe 
wharf, dock or craft as ordered by charterers. 

Owners to give charterers fourteen days' notice of steamer's 
readiness, also ample notice when and where steamer will be 
fitted out. 

It was further necessary to insure the deer against accident, 
and the contract was made as follows: owners to pay in- 



264 LABRADOR 

surers $38.88 per cent less rebate of $13.50 per cent if no 
claim was made. No claim did arise. 

The herd set sail on December 30, and, after a very rough 
voyage of twenty-one days, sighted ice off the Labrador 
coast. She eventually anchored in a bay on the North 
Newfoundland coast, about eight miles from the harbour 
that we had chosen as a wintering place for the deer. 
During the night a heavy onshore wind drove the ice into 
this bay, and pushed the steamer from her anchors and on the 
rocks, — a position from which she was only subsequently 
rescued after considerable damage. The deer were mean- 
while landed on the broken slob-ice with the result that they 
scattered in every direction, some even disappearing over 
the horizon seaward and many falling into the water 
between the large pans of ice. The Lapp herders at once led 
ashore some of the more sedate beasts with bells around 
their necks, and tethered them at varying distances along 
the coast, as lures to the others. This ruse proved most 
successful, and by an accurate count made at a round-up 
three weeks later, every one of the three hundred was found 
in the herd. Lieutenant W. G. Lindsay of Cork, Ireland, 
who had had some experience in Mexico ranching, has been 
in charge of this experiment from that time. 

The deer at once took kindly to their new environment, 
being allowed to run wild all day, though brought in near 
camp every night. Each day two herders, with dogs, fol- 
lowed the wandering herd and brought them nearly to the 
same place in the evening. The deer never wandered far; 
on two or three occasions a single individual was missing 
and got perhaps as far as twenty miles away, but straying 
never presented any serious trouble. More serious at first 



REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 265 

were two successive glitters, or sharp thaws followed by 
frost, which covered the snow with a hard ice coat and made 
it difficult for the deer to dig down to their food. In spite, 
however, of all difficulties and the long voyage, they 
steadily gained in weight, and so far as we can tell, not 
one of the pregnant does lost her fawn. 

On the following pages is the expense account of the 
enterprise: — 



266 LABBADOB 

FRANCIS H. WOOD IN ACCOUNT 

. . y$ t4 ...... ... 

To Cash per Mr. Peters . . . . . ■ • . £1,570 2 7 

" " '" Mr. Reed, of Boston . . . . . 1,312 4 11 

" " " Miss Brodribb 20 

" Sundry Contributions per "Toilers of the Deep" . . 3 11 6 

" Interest on Deposit ....... 9 13 9 

" Cash Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company, sale 

of 50 deer 513 19 2 

" Cash Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company, sale 

of 4 dogs 5 10 

" Cash Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company, re- 
payment advance of wages to Lapp Families . „ 32 17 6 
" Rebate on Insurance (see contra) . . . . • 76 19 



£3,544 18 5 



REINDEER EOR LABRADOR 



267 



WITH REINDEER FUND 

PURCHASE ACCOUNT 

By Cost of 300 Reindeer, as 
per contract with Israel 
Mella . . . . Kr. 9,375 

" Cost of moss, as per con- 
tract . . . . Kr. 6,000 

" Cost of 8 Lapp dogs for 
herding deer, as per 
contract . . . Kr. 200 

" Allowance for providing 
yard at Bugten and 
herding deer between 
November 25th and 
30th, as per contract . Kr. 500 

" Payment to Agent for as- 
sistance in making con- 
tract and superintend- 
ing shipment, etc. . Kr. 1,800 
Kr. 17,875 

" F. H. Wood's travelling expenses to 
Norway to purchase deer, etc. 

SHIPMENT AND EMBARKATION 
EXPENSES 

By cost of feeding deer from November 
30th to December 12th while wait- 
ing for ship, extra for fittings, and 
sundry expenses connected with em- 
barkation, telegrams, and postages . 

v Payment to owners of Anita for 
freight ...... 

" Present of 2/- a head to Captain for 
each deer landed alive 

" Cost of insuring deer against all risks 
at £8 per cent less rebate of 54/- 
per cent if no claim arose (see contra) 

DISBURSEMENTS ON ACCOUNT OF 
MAINTENANCE 

By Advances made to 4 Lapland Families 

on account of wages 
" Stores and provisions for re-sale to 
Lapps, including Port Dues (£3 Is. 
2d.) in London .... 

" Balance in hand for maintenance ex- 
penses forwarded to Newfoundland . 
Grand total . 



ar. 



£982 2 10 

50 = £1032 2 10 = 
$16.74 per 
head 



206 11 1 

1,700 

30 



206 16 6 = £2143 7 7 = 
$34.75 per 
head 



82 3 11 



26 14 2 

260 9 11 
£3,544 18 5 = $51.49, total 

^— ———-'— per head 

landed St. 



Anthony 



268 LABRADOR 

Our attempt to use the stags for rapid transit has not 
been altogether successful. At hauling logs and other 
weights on the boat-like " pulkas," or on our more adaptable 
" catamarans/ ' at a walking pace they succeeded admirably, 
each deer pulling as much as four or five dogs. But when 
pace was the criterion of success they failed at the first. 
For though they could go like the wind when they wished, 
they did not often go fast when we wished, and we had to 
be contented with the Lapps' assurance that they only 
needed experience. In this respect the deer have certainly 
improved this second winter very considerably; but still 
we have not been able to consider them as rivals in speed 
to our dogs. Their timid natures seemed to make them 
flurried when an excess of speed is demanded on a down 
grade, and their habit of suddenly stopping ceased to be 
amusing, when it would cause you, with your loaded sled, 
to roll over and over with your team to the bottom of a 
steep incline. I am assured, however, that this is only a 
difficulty to be overcome, and my Alaskan informant, who 
for many years has driven a mail train with reindeer, 
assures me that it takes a reindeer stag three seasons' 
work really to find himself. If, however, for any reason we 
are unable to entirely replace our dogs with deer for rapid 
transit, we shall proceed as we have locally, by killing off 
all the worst dogs and enforcing the existing laws, which 
compel all dogs roaming at large to wear a heavy clog or 
carry one paw through a ring round the neck. I have 
repeatedly driven my own dog-team through the herd this 
winter without trouble. 

On several occasions when we have tethered our beasts 
at night they have either pulled adrift, or chewed through 



REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 269 

the skin line that held them, and so escaped. But as a 
rule they have at once found the herd and returned to it, 
even though it may have been feeding many miles away at 
the time. At other times, certain deer have shown a pro- 
pensity to select certain particular spots for grazing, and 
have repeatedly left the main herd and returned to the 
ground of their own selection. The main herd, as a rule, 
get up and feed from daylight to about 11 a.m., then lie 
down and rest until about 4 p.m., about which hour a stag 
would get up and walk round restlessly. If he came too 
near another, the latter would strike viciously at him with his 
head, as if deploring the fact that the time had arrived for 
renewed activity. He would, however, soon arise as if 
under protest, and join the moving group till all the herd 
was afoot. Then, without apparently any reason, it would 
seem to occur to a stag that to migrate ten miles northwest 
or southeast would be advantageous, and off he would go 
at a staid walk, the whole herd falling in and following him 
like a funeral procession. 

The time for fawning came with May, and Mr. Lindsay 
took the deer to highlands as free as possible of the then 
treacherous brooks and lakes, which were opening beneath 
the spring sun. Our herd was now reduced to two hundred 
does and fifty stags, for we had sent south the fifty deer 
sold to a large lumber concern, three hundred miles to the 
south. These latter had all reached their destination safely 
after their long march, only one stag dying after arrival. 
They were to be used for carrying supplies over snow to 
far-off logging camps. 

As far as we could count, the does threw one hundred and 
sixty-eight fawns, and of these only eight were born dead or 



270 LABRADOR 

perished in the brooks and thickets. We also lost two 
deer by dogs during the year, and found one doe shot with 
buckshot, so that exactly one year after arrival, our two 
hundred and fifty numbered four hundred and five. On 
one occasion at least a fawn born in April gave birth to a 
fawn the following year. 

All summer long the deer had chosen the high green- 
covered hills close to the sea, greatly enjoying and rapidly 
fattening on the salty food. They ate mostly the young 
grass and new green leaves, apparently making little dis- 
crimination, except that as they did not seem to use the 
moss on which they must rely in winter, one might have 
suggested (probably untruthfully) that they were spe- 
cially saving that for consumption when nothing else 
would be available. 

The magnificent antlers on the older stags proved a 
danger to others, and after one had been killed by a bad 
wound in the side, we dehorned the rest, with the excep- 
tion of their brow antlers, which we considered sufficient 
to enable the deer to keep up their courage and spirit of 
play. After the fawns had run six full weeks with their 
mothers, that is, by the beginning of August, the herd was 
driven by the dogs every day into a large corral built for 
the purpose, and xity does were milked each time. While 
suckling their fawns, we could not expect to get very- 
much milk at best from each. They gave us, however, 
a pint of a very rich, creamy milk per head. This tasted 
more like cow's milk than anything I know of, and had 
none of the flavour familiar to that of the goat. I have 
unfortunately no analysis of its component parts with me, 
but would judge it would take at least one-quarter part of 
water to reduce it to the standard of cow's milk. This be- 
ing an experimental year, beyond now and again sending a 
supply round to our nearest hospital and to neighbours, 
we made no attempt at a systematic distribution of it. 






REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 271 

The milk was, however, readily made by our Lapp herders 
into a very delectable and easily digestible cream cheese. 

A report direct from the herd, dated March, 1909, 
states that the herd is in splendid condition: the stags 
fat and sleek, the does all well, and no losses. Even those 
returned in bad condition by schooner (from the lumber 
camp mentioned) have picked up during a hard winter, and 
appear to promise well for fawning in the spring. 

By 1913 the deer numbered 1500. They had justified 
all our expectations. An epidemic of pneumonia, how- 
ever, killed altogether about 100 deer this summer. We 
had also considerable trouble with poachers. 

We applied, as a consequence, to the Newfoundland 
Government for a reserve in which no deer hunting might 
take place. But they only saw fit to rule that no reindeer 
should be killed north of the line we had hoped to fence. 
Poaching became much worse, and one winter 250 were 
killed just across the imaginary line. In 1916 the Cana- 
dian Government undertook to take over the herd to 
Canadian Labrador and pay the expenses of herding. 

In 1918 we took over 130 — 10 were killed — and 40 
which we saw but could not catch were poached before 
we returned. These deer were placed at Bay de Rochers 
where under Captain Living of the Indian Department 
they are again multiplying. With Mr. Hyclinar Steffan- 
son I went to Ottawa to secure more interest in the deer 
in 1920, and in 1921 our agent Mr. Wood purchased 
700 deer for Mr. Steffanson and the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany for Baffinsland, the Hudson Bay Company having 
secured exclusive rights of pasturage for that island. 

In 1921 an American Company also was formed with 
Governor Riggs of Alaska and Mr. Davidson, editor of 
the "Field" on its board. They have secured rights of 
pasture for East Labrador. Faith in the success ulti- 
mately of the enterprise is now widespread. 



CHAPTER X 

THE DOGS 
By W. T. Grenfell 

Human life in Labrador has been so largely dependent 
on dogs that a brief chapter devoted to them is almost 
essential. 

The real Labrador dog is a very slightly modified wolf. 
A good specimen stands two feet six inches, or even two 
feet eight inches high at the shoulder, measures over six 
feet six inches from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail, 
and will scale a hundred pounds. The hair is thick and 
straight ; on the neck it may be six inches in length. The 
ears are pointed and stand directly up. The appearance 
generally is that of a magnified Pomeranian. The legs 
look short, compared with the massive body. The eyes are 
Japanese, and give the animal a foxy look about the face. 
The large, bushy tail curves completely over on to the back, 
and is always carried erect. The colour is generally tawny, 
like that of a gray wolf, with no distinctive markings, but 
a beautiful black and white breed has grown up, and fur- 
nishes the handsomest dogs. The general resemblance to 
wolves is so great that at Davis Inlet, where wolves come 
out frequently in winter, the factor has seen his team mixed 
with a pack of wolves on the beach in front of the door, and 
yet could not shoot, being unable to distinguish one from 

272 



THE DOGS 273 

the other. Settlers have succeeded in getting good skins 
by pegging out a female dog in heat, and shooting the wolves 
that come down after her. 

The wolves themselves are larger than the dogs. They 
may measure in length as much as seven feet eight inches, 
from nose to tail. They are very bold; on one occasion 
wolves lurked around a solitary house in Big Bay till they 
had carried off the four dogs, one by one, and left only after 
capturing the cat. The dogs retain these same ancestral 
habits. Some summer settlers at Batteau have goats at 
their small shacks. About ten miles away at Red Point 
lived a hungry team of dogs. One night a goat was missing. 
The crime was traced to the dogs. Men with guns waited 
their return, with no result except much loss of time. The 
dogs never came near the settlement by day. Yet, before 
the people left, the dogs had successfully carried off every 
goat without suffering any losses. 

On another occasion my own leading dog, a black bitch 
from Cape Chidley, ran away from the hospital in early 
spring. She was seen near a neighbouring village, killing 
sheep. Three had been slaughtered by her on land, and she 
had driven two more out on to a rocky island, where she 
swam off and slew them. With a long shot the sheep-owner 
wounded her, and she fled into the woods, but still did not 
return home. He hauled the carcass near the edge of the 
woods, and sat up for her. True to her wolfish instinct, 
she returned to her quarry by night, and so met her fate. 

Our dogs know little or no fear, and, unlike the wolves, 
will unhesitatingly attack even the largest polar bear. 
On one occasion a man's dogs, travelling along smooth sea 
ice, scented a white bear and started off like the wind. 



274 LABRADOR 

They suddenly turned a point and ran right into him, so 
that the traces tangled round the bear before the astonished 
driver had time to unlash his gun. As soon as he could, 
he cut the traces, but even in harness the dogs kept Bruin 
at bay. Though the bear stood up to fight on his hind legs, 
the dogs managed to get in some good bites without being 
hurt. On another occasion a man brought me a specially 
valued dog that a bear had squeezed. The bear had been 
sighted some distance off on the ice-floe, and the dogs were 
slipped to hold him up for the hunter. By the time he 
arrived on the spot, they had the bear practically killed. 
But two had been damaged by him, one clawed and one 
squeezed. 

The Labrador wolf has never been known to kill a man. 
Yet on several occasions single men have fallen in with them. 
One man told me that a pack followed him almost to his 
own door, that they stopped when he stopped, and came 
as close as ten yards. He had no gun and no means of 
defence, yet they never touched him. The Labrador dog 
has much the same respect for man. He is, moreover, 
affectionate and playful. You can easily make a pet of 
him, if you treat him well. He is generally harmless to 
children when he is decently looked after, but a team 
of dogs together, however quiet, are never safe to strangers. 
Even a single dog, if kicked about, badly fed, and left to 
be worried by the neighbouring dogs every day of his life, 
cannot be trusted. 

The wolf will track a deer day after day till he captures 
it. Again and again our trappers have seen evidence of the 
indefatigable zeal and indomitable resolution of a, single 
wolf in following a caribou herd ; and observers all agree 



THE DOGS 275 

that each time the track spells the shadow of death. A 
settler told me the story of a doe caribou which, in the early 
summer of 1906, he saw brought to bay on the middle of 
a pond by a single wolf. The ice had thawed out, and it 
was necessary for the wolf to swim off to get at the deer. 
The wolf, after long hesitation in taking to the water, 
which it apparently hates, swam off, fought the caribou, 
and though repeatedly knocked down by her fore hoofs, 
at last pulled her down. 

Our dogs, taking the scent of a caribou trail, even when 
in harness, will forget all discipline, and they will almost 
tear a komatik and driver to pieces in their eagerness to 
give chase. I have known of a team that thus ran away, 
and some of them never came back. In all probability they 
had been killed, for an Eskimo dog never loses his way. 

The dogs very seldom perish for want of food, and then 
only under circumstances of an extraordinary nature, such 
as being adrift on the floe-ice. The Eskimo dog takes 
kindly to the water in summer. He will go in fearlessly 
after fish. When the caplin run ashore, the dogs, half 
starved after the winter (like most of the other animals), 
almost live in the water, eating their fill till they are like 
ambulatory barrels. I have watched them patiently hunt- 
ing flatfish in shallow water. They dive their heads under 
water when they feel the fish wriggle under their feet. 
Twice I have had half-breed dogs who would dive to the 
bottom in two to two and a half fathoms of water, and bring 
up stones wrapped in white paper. This accomplishment 
served me well on one occasion. From the edge of the 
shore ice I had shot a seal swimming in the open water 
alongside. My leading dog, which I unharnessed, dived 



276 LABBADOB 

to the bottom, and brought the seal to the surface by the 
flipper. 

I am inclined to think the half-breed dogs are the clever- 
est also in memorizing. In 1907 I was driving a distance 
of seventy miles across country. The path was untravelled 
for the winter, and was only a direction, not being cut and 
blazed. The leading dog had been once across the previous 
year with the doctor. The " going" had then been very 
bad; with snow and fog, the journey had taken three days. 
A large part of the journey lay across wide lakes, and then 
through woods. As neither I nor my friends on the other 
komatiks had been that way before, we had to leave it 
to the dog. He went so quickly and so confidently that it 
grew almost weird to sit behind him. Several times I called 
a halt to examine the direction and leads. Without a single 
fault, as far as we knew, he took us across, and we accom- 
plished the whole journey in twelve hours, including one 
and a half hours for rest and lunch. 

No amount of dry cold seems to affect the dogs. They 
sleep out on the coldest nights, frequently choosing the most 
exposed places, and apparently disdaining any shelter. 
I have almost had to dig them out from new snow in the 
mornings. They will stay in the water any length of time 
in summer when the water is from 40 to 43° F. I have seen 
a dog mistake the buoy on a net for a stick thrown by his 
master. He swam out, seized it, and tried to pull it ashore. 
We went in and had tea, and when we came out again, the 
dog was still pulling at the buoy. Yet, in winter, the dogs 
dread the water, and it is very difficult to drive them 
through it. They seem also to have an instinct telling them 
when ice cannot be depended on, and it is rare that they 
fall through, unless being urged on by a driver. 



THE DOGS 277 

In training a leader, a female is generally chosen as less 
likely to be damaged by the others fighting with her, — 
an accident which, at certain times, would cost a man his 
life. The ideal team is a clever mother followed by a dozen 
of her own pups. Mixed teams, however powerful, are 
never so good. The dogs soon learn to turn at the word of 
command. The whole team will sometimes learn to " turn " 
without waiting for the leader ; but that is rare. The dogs 
get to know their own places in a team, and, if allowed to 
run loose for any cause, such as an accident or sickness, will 
nearly always come and run in their places. I have had 
so much trouble with a dog doing that and getting repeat- 
edly run over for his pains, that I have had to lash him on 
the komatik to save his life. 

There can be no question that the dogs love to be driven. 
They go perfectly wild with excitement when they are in 
harness. The komatik must be lashed to a stump or stone, 
and the line cut only when the driver is ready to go. The 
team then shoots off like an arrow from a bow. 

They are, of course, flesh eaters, and, by nature, purely 
carnivorous, only touching meal and farinaceous foods when 
compelled by dire hunger. During my years in Labrador 
they have killed two children and one man, and eaten 
another. In the case of the second man the evidence went 
to show that he was not killed by the dogs, though his dead 
body was devoured by them. In that case (winter of 1906), 
a man, his wife, and son got lost. Their bodies were found 
only when the snow melted away during the following 
summer. Of the owner of the dogs only the bones were 
discovered. As the dogs returned in good condition after 
a fortnight's absence, all of them were shot. The other 



278 LABRADOR 

man killed (also in 1906) was driving home, and had badly 
fed, savage dogs. He was apparently beating them, 
when they fell on him and nearly tore him to pieces. Each 
of the two children fell down in the midst of a pack that 
had begun fighting. 

The dogs will kill almost any kind of domestic animal 
quite naturally. I was passing a house one day into which 
an elderly lady was driving a goat. I heard a shout and 
noticed my leading dog was calmly proceeding on the way, 
dragging the unfortunate goat in his mouth by the hind leg. 
Our traces, harness, and all fastenings are made of sealskin, 
and these the dogs love to eat, but most will readily learn 
not to do so. I have had dogs which would not eat their 
skin shoes that we put on them to save their feet against the 
cutting of the ice crust. At the same time my sealskin 
whip has often been eaten, a deed which one scarcely knew 
whether to attribute to bad taste or to great sagacity. 

There is nothing an Eskimo dog likes more than a fight. 
The moment the noise of a fight breaks the silence, every 
dog in hearing will fly off at full speed to the spot and "chip 
in." Members of one team will, as a rule, stick together; 
a whole team will saunter out, and try to lure passers-by 
into a melee. As a rule, however, all dogs will bite the first 
to fall, and if one has the misfortune to be thrown on his 
back, it is nearly certain his fate is sealed. It is marvellous 
how soon they can kill the enemy. I have known it done 
in two minutes, a great fang finding a billet in the carotid 
artery. I had purchased a fine dog for a leader one year, 
and on the first trip left him tied with the team in harness 
while I went to pay a visit. He was dead and partly eaten 
when I returned. 



THE DOGS 279 

The natives always use great whips with a lash as long 
as thirty feet. With that the driver can strike any dog 
he wishes, even at full gallop. The length of the handle is 
immaterial. Indeed, I have known an Eskimo kill many 
partridges (or spruce grouse) by flicking them with a whip 
which had no handle at all. Any good hand with a whip 
will drive nails into a post with it, and will cut a hole 
almost through a door-panel. 

. For endurance, few animals can equal our dogs. As I 
have said before, cold seems absolutely immaterial. At 
50° F. below zero, a dog will lie out on the ice and sleep 
without danger of frost-bite. He may climb out of the 
sea with ice forming all over his fur, but he seems not to 
mind one iota. I have seen his breath freeze so over his 
face that he had to rub the coating off his eyes with his paws 
to enable him to see the track. I have driven him from 
daylight to dark on bright spring days when a couple of 
hours of such exposure would blind the unprotected eyes 
of most men. I have never yet known a dog's eyes to 
suffer at all. 

No dog is fed more than once a day ; and one might almost 
say no dog is ever given all he wants to eat. Yet a team 
will, when unavoidable, go two and three days without food 
on a journey, and yet show scarcely a sign of fatigue. To 
feed its puppies, a dog will vomit the food it has eaten itself. 

For speed and endurance it is difficult to surpass these 
wonderful animals. An old friend, a Hudson's Bay factor 
at Moose Factory, in a letter describing a journey he re- 
cently made with ten dogs, and nearly a thousand pounds' 
weight on the komatik, says : " We covered the one hundred 
and eighty miles of distance in two and a half days, and the 



280 LABRADOR 

dogs showed no signs of slacking when we drew up." With 
a half-breed team of only seven dogs, I have myself travelled 
seventy miles a day over a hilly country, but there were only 
two hundred and fifty pounds on the komatik. On this 
journey there was time allowed for midday rest for lunch 
and the boiling of the kettle. 

The Eskimo dog never barks. But he howls exactly 
like a wolf, in sitting posture with the head upturned. 
One dog will start every dog in ear-shot. This keeps a 
traveller awake, and so the people have invented many 
charms, one of which consists in seizing the band of your 
shirt in your teeth and chewing it till the noise stops. 

During twenty years we have known of no cases of hy- 
datid cysts due to the dangerous form of tapeworm such 
as is transmitted by dogs in Greenland. Indeed, even dis- 
temper and mange are very rare among Eskimo dogs. 
Though every family keeps half a dozen at least, not a single 
case of hydrophobia has been known. 

The great beauty of a dog-team is that it seems to banish 
all conventionalities. You can go anywhere and every- 
where with no roads, no hedges, no walls, no restrictions 
but your own will; and that will, without rein or bridle, 
you make your dog's will. Dogs can carry you up almost 
the steepest snow slope and down again in safety. They 
do not slip or sink in, and if they fall over even a high cliff 
in the winter, they are very rarely hurt. They seem to 
understand what you say, and so form a far better com- 
panion than a horse. They are automobiles which need no 
handling of their machinery. They enjoy travelling almost 
more than their masters enjoy it. They learn to love you 
as only a dog will, and if it were not for their occasional out- 



THE BOGS 281 

breaks of wickedness, they would make the best of com- 
panions. As it is, I know of no greater pleasure possible 
than a large, strong team, a good leader, a brisk, bright 
spring day, and a really long journey to go. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 
By W. T. Grenfell 

Labrador is as yet a land of specialized industries. The 
endless problem of food and clothing has made the native 
Eskimo a hunter of seals ; the native Indian has preferred 
the deer; the incoming whites, while importing their 
flour and woven cloths, have found their good genius in the 
cod. Nearly three hundred years ago it was known that 
this fish was plentiful on the southern coast of the penin- 
sula, and ever since the cod-fishery has been more or less 
vigorously pursued on the Labrador. In former times the 
herring, and always the salmon, has furnished minor parts 
in the harvest from the coastal waters, but it is remarkable 
that, in Newfoundland and Labrador, "fish" is a synonym 
merely for cod; a local law has stated that salmon is not 
fish. Other members of the Gadidse family, as the hake, 
tusk, haddock, whiting, coalfish, pollack, ling, and whiting- 
pout, are absent or present in negligible quantities. A 
flounder is the only noteworthy representative of the flat- 
fish family. The halibut is found only in deep water, far 
from shore. 

For many reasons the humble cod has a just claim to 
preeminence among the food-fishes. As food for man, cod 

282 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 283 

is the bread of the sea. He may be called the bread and 
butter, for more surely than any other marine species does 
he supply a food of which the white man's palate does not 
tire. His flesh is rich and gelatinous, without being fatty. 
Every particle of his body is useful to man. The skin and 
bones make excellent glue. The tongue and swim-bladder 
are rare delicacies when well cooked, and have also been 
used as raw material in the manufacture of isinglass. The 
refined cod-liver oil is among the most sterling remedies 
yet devised for man's bodily weakness, which so often leads 
to deadly phthisis. 1 The refuse oil may be employed for 
tanning purposes; the offal is very valuable manure. In 
Norway and Iceland, the dried heads have been largely used 
as food for cattle. The roe is an excellent bait, and forms 
a notable part of the Norwegian annual export. On 
Arctic shores the well-dried bones, for lack of other material, 
have been used for fuel. For curing purposes, the cod is 
unsurpassed. Belonging to the Anacanthini, or spineless 
fish, he can be rapidly deprived of bone and entrails without 
danger to the fisherman's hands. 

A fresh codfish weighing 6.6 pounds contains as much as 
5.4 pounds of water. When well cured, it will weigh 2.2 
pounds, of which 16.5 ounces is nutritive matter, 4.5 ounces 
is salt, and 12.5 ounces is water. Compared with fresh 
beef, the nutritive value of the dried cod is as 9 to 10, and 
the cost is less than one-half that of beef at average prices. 
It is said that a Newfoundland fish contains more nutriment 

1 Four hundred Lofoten cod give a barrel of oil, but it takes twice 
as many to give a barrel of the refined, medicinal oil. The product 
rotted out is called cod oil; that for drinking, cod-liver oil. About 
thirty-six hundred livers of Labrador cod go to the barrel of twenty- 
five gallons. 



284 LABRADOR 

than an equally heavy fish from the French banks. In 
Europe, fresh cod is regarded as best for table use when 
caught in the coldest months, December to February. 
The relatively high nutritive value of the Newfoundland- 
Labrador fish is probably to be explained in large part 
by the fact that all the year round the sea temperatures are 
at least as low as those which bring the European cod into 
best condition. 

The fish can be preserved in wet bulk all winter by putting 
enough salt between adjacent layers to prevent them from 
touching one another. It may also be preserved as dry 
bulk in piles covered over and well pressed down. But 
the fish may be cured by no other means whatever than by 
splitting open the carcass and hanging it up in the sun to 
dry. Many of the ancient, foreign names for the animal 
have apparently been derived from the fact that from times 
immemorial the flesh of the drying split fish has been 
made tenderer by beating the carcass with clubs. The 
Norwegians call the animal the "stock" (stick) fish; in 
Spanish it is "baccalhao" (from Lat. bacvlum, a staff, rod, 
or small stick); in Italian, "mazza" (a club); in Gaelic, 
"gad" (rod). The Greeks called the fish "bacchi" (rods). 
In English the name "stock-fish" covers the haddock, 
ling, and hake, as well as the cod. The Labrador Eskimo 
always preserve cod by hard drying without salt. The 
white man, of course, has devised his own methods of curing 
the cod by smoking it like the salmon, or of turning it as 
steaks or in boneless rolls, ready for immediate use, but the 
commonest method is still that by dry salting, as it has been 
for so many centuries. Since these many virtues as a food- 
fish must be multiplied by the inconceivable numbers of 




On the March 




Waiting for Their Master 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 285 

individuals, the title "King of the food-fishes" is justified, 
even against the herring. 

Each female lays from three to nine million eggs each year, 
generally in the months from February to May, inclusive. 
The fish spawns rapidly. As the females are " ripening," 
the roe or ovaries are so large that they fill the mother's 
body and actually tend to prevent her feeding. So far as 
it goes, this is a fortunate protection for the species, since, 
during this important period in her life, the female is thereby 
less liable to be caught on a bait. The males seem to out- 
number the females considerably, but the balance is main- 
tained for reproduction by the fact that the roe of the aver- 
age female is two or three times as heavy as the milt of the 
average male. 

Though the eggs contain no oil globule, they float in the 
water. The milt also floats, and as its units are present 
in inestimable quantities, the fertilization of the eggs, 
which takes place in the open water, is insured. It is made 
yet more certain by the fact that during the spawning season 
the cod aggregate into immense shoals in shallow water. 
This free floating is a great protection to the eggs, as they 
cannot be browsed up in bulk off the bottom, like the spawn 
of herring, which adheres in masses to the rocks and gravels. 
The young cod grows rapidly, and in twelve months is about 
sixteen inches long, and in twenty-four months is a mature 
fish about twenty-four inches long. As a rule, however, it 
will not breed until it is three years old. Its youth is largely 
spent in eating its own brothers and sisters and cousins, 
and also in escaping being eaten. The career of any indi- 
vidual is apt to be a checkered one, and it is only one out of 
many that succeeds "in realizing any aspirations he may 



286 LABRADOR 

have to a humble corner on a fishmonger's slab." During 
his life he seems singularly free from diseases, but blindness 
and rickets (unaccompanied by fever) have been found not 
infrequently. The blindness may be due to mechanical 
injuries or to exposure to too much light during the long 
days of the north. Rickety fish often have humped backs. 

The largest codfish of which I have record on this coast 
scaled one hundred and two pounds, and was five feet six 
inches long. The record on the English coast is seventy- 
eight pounds, with length of five feet eight inches ; this fish 
was caught in 1755, and was sold for the sum of one shilling. 
The largest recorded cod on the Newfoundland Banks was 
caught by Captain Stephen May in 1838; the weight, after 
the fish was gutted, was one hundred and thirty-six pounds ! 
Another cod holds the record on the American coast; 
he was caught by Captain Atwood, who found him to scale 
one hundred and sixty pounds. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
and on the east coast of Labrador, the fish are of smaller 
average size than on the banks off Newfoundland and the 
United States. The fish from the far north, near Cape 
Chidley, are both shorter and thinner than those taken at 
the Strait of Belle Isle. The average Labrador cod taken 
in the trap-net is about twenty inches long, and weighs 
between three and four pounds. Those caught on hook 
and line in the autumn are much larger and heavier. 

The monster cod once caught off Rockall and the Hebrides 
in the early days of those fisheries have disappeared. Pre- 
sumably they held a kind of monopoly of all food that came 
along, and thus assumed the first chances in swallowing 
baited hooks. It may be noted that the cod is never large 
enough to be completely free from the danger of being eaten 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 287 

alive, for seals are quite indifferent on that point. The 
cod must rarely die of old age. 

The actual company enjoyed by these gregarious crea- 
tures may be observed any season on the Labrador, when 
the great schools of cod are feeding on the living caplin, 
as the latter, themselves in countless hosts, run inshore to 
feed. The water is then often literally black with cod, and 
so eager are they after their food that the air over the school 
is alive with fish jumping after their prey. Additional ex- 
citement in the water is furnished by the dogfish, sharks, 
seals, or herring-hogs, which follow the cod from interested 
motives. Cartwright, in 1776, gives the following descrip- 
tion of such a school : "Observing many codfish to come 
close inshore, where the water was deep, I laid myself flat 
on the rock, took a caplin by the tail, and held it in the 
water in expectation that a cod would take it out of my 
fingers. Nor was I disappointed, for almost immediately 
a fish struck at it and seized it. And no sooner had one 
snatched away the caplin than another sprang out of the 
water, and actually caught a slight hold of my finger and 
thumb. Had I dipped my hand in the water, I am con- 
vinced they would soon have made me repent of my folly, 
for they are a very greedy, bold fish." A similar sight was 
presented at one point on the coast last year (1908), good 
sizable fish jumping out of the water after bait and landing 
on the rocks, so that they were actually taken without 
any trouble beyond that of picking them up. 

Fortunately for themselves and for the world, they are 
gifted with the most extraordinary digestive powers ; they 
certainly do their honest best to convert everything that 
comes into their way into that which will ultimately benefit 



288 LABBABOB 

mankind. I have myself taken three small cod and twenty- 
seven caplin from the stomach of one postprandial fish 
and have seen an excellent gold ring taken from the stomach 
of another. A book in three volumes was taken from the 
stomach of a codfish off Lynn, England, and presented to 
the vice-chancellor of Cambridge University. Scissors, 
oil-cans, old boots, testify to the catholicity of the cod's 
appetite. Captain Hill, who lost his keys over the side in 
the North Sea, had them returned to him from the inside of 
a codfish. Two full-grown ducks have been found in a 
cod's stomach ; the birds were quite fresh, and had appar- 
ently been swallowed alive. An entire partridge, a whole 
hare, six (small) dogfish, an entire turnip, a guillemot 
(beak, claws, and all), a tallow candle, have all betrayed 
the omnivorous leanings of some of our friends. But per- 
haps their devotion to business is best shown by the number 
of stones taken from their interiors and merely swallowed 
for the sake of the corallines which had grown on the stones. 
Lobsters, crabs, whelk shells, and the like, swallowed an 
naturelle do not seem to require any special digestive pre- 
cautions. A Newfoundland fisherman had the melancholy 
duty of forwarding a wedding-ring found in a cod's stomach 
to the family of a lady who was lost off the Newfoundland 
coast in the steamship Anglo-Saxon. 

The question whether there is any diminution in the 
supply of the cod on the Labrador is an interesting and 
important one. If it be granted that there is such diminu- 
tion, it is still an open question whether man has been re- 
sponsible for the change. All the millions of fish taken 
annually out of these waters must represent but an ex- 
tremely minute fraction of the total "run" along the 






The Sea of Ice 




Newfoundland Schooners working North 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 289 

thousand miles of coast. It is conceivable that the codfish 
host is so evenly balanced against the host of its natural 
sea-water enemies that even the small human inroad on 
the numbers, especially on the numbers of females, may in 
time produce a sensible thinning out of the shoals. But 
we have as yet no good proof that this is the case. The 
fish are protected from man by the long winter months; 
from November to June, or even July, they are safe from 
that enemy at least, for the ice shuts man out from the sea. 
Those places where the largest catches were made years 
ago are still usually the best berths, e.g. Griffin's Harbour. 
That fact seems significant, for, in some measure like the 
salmon, the cod is a local fish and tends to return, year after 
year, to the section of the coast where he was born. It 
follows, therefore, that, if man were causing a diminution 
in the numbers of the cod, the best berths of former times 
would be less likely to be the best berths now. Though the 
herring and mackerel have largely disappeared from the 
Labrador coast during the last half century, they have 
certainly not been exterminated by fishermen. The 
quantities taken of these two fish have been far too small 
to effect that result. The ancient fishery off Yarmouth, 
England, has taken ten thousand times more herring than 
have ever been captured on the Labrador, yet the annual 
taking off the English coast is still remarkable. 

However, the majority of Labrador fishermen think that 
the cod are diminishing in numbers along the whole coast. 
They refer to the partial or complete abandonment of the 
northern summer stations at Windsor Harbour, Fanny's 
Harbour, Aillik, Long Tickle, etc., where the industry once 
flourished. Other arguments run to the effect that the 



290 LABBABOB 

Jersey and American firms who, years ago, conducted large 
operations on the coast, had to give them up, owing to the 
scarcity of fish ; that well-off families have fallen into pov- 
erty and want, and that many have left the coast ; that float- 
ing craft have to keep going farther and farther afield; 
that large bays, which attracted settlers on account of the 
local abundance of cod, are now deserted ; that some places 
along the Labrador fail every year nowadays ; that, not- 
withstanding the large mesh now compelled by government, 
the fish taken are now of smaller average size than formerly ; 
that the catch is not proportionate to the increased outfit ; 
and that the bank fisheries have been depleted both abso- 
lutely and relatively. The pessimists argue further that 
the cod-fishery runs risk of approaching the failures recorded 
for the lobster, salmon, seal, and even the trout, all of which 
have been signally depleted by man ; the whales and whalers 
are steadily diminishing. Walrus has been banished from 
the Labrador. All along the Labrador there are bullies 
and fishing-boats, once in regular use, now lying up and 
rotting on the shore. 

That the government once leaned to this view was shown 
by the establishment of a codfish hatchery in Newfound- 
land, not for biological experiment, but for hatching young 
fish for restocking the bays. Subsequently, under Sir 
William Whiteway, the hatchery was closed down. Some 
fishermen thought the plan a success ; others thought it a 
failure. 

In judging the case, the obvious precaution must be taken 
that too much reliance be not placed on the testimony of 
a few individual captains; as the number of men and 
amount of capital engaged in the industry increase, the 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 291 

chances of failure of cargo for the single schooner are in- 
creased. There are simply not enough "best berths" 
to go round when the list of schooners increases beyond 
a certain point. Quite independently of man's interfer- 
ence, the harvests of the sea, like those on the land, may 
naturally swing in cycles. So long ago as 1775 there was a 
complete failure of the cod-fishery along the north side of 
Belle Isle Strait; yet this latest year (1908) the "crop" 
has been unusually good. It may well be that the inshore 
fishing is now in a period of relatively lean years, to be 
followed by a period of fat years, — the whole swing of the 
industrial pendulum being utterly uncontrolled by the 
relatively insignificant takings of the summer fleet on the 
Labrador. Neither science nor the practical industry 
has yet obtained sufficient knowledge of the sea to declare 
the whole law which governs the annual, much less the 
age-to-age, swelling or recession of the finny flood. 

In any event the cod seem to be as plentiful as ever in 
deep water. The use of long lines by banking vessels along 
the Labrador is growing steadily in importance. The 
failure of many a schooner to find cargo may be due to the 
fact that the trap-net is the only method of capture em- 
ployed. The deepest water in which I have seen traps 
set is eighteen fathoms. If for any reason the fish, though 
as plentiful as ever, do not come right home to the rocks, 
the captain outfitted with trap-net only might wrongly 
report on this question of a possible diminution in the 
numbers of the cod in Labrador seas. 

One important cause governing the nearness of the 
approach of the cod in any year to the actual coast-line is 
undoubtedly the temperature of the water. This may 



292 LABRADOR 

affect the fish directly, or may control the distribution 
of the other animals on which he feeds, thus affecting the 
cod himself indirectly. The cod will not feed in water 
under 34° F. He prefers temperatures ranging between 
35° F. and 42° F. On the cod-bearing Norwegian waters 
the hottest month is August, when the surface of the sea 
averages 43.5° F. (12.8° C.) ; ten fathoms down it averages 
41.9° F. (11° C), and twenty fathoms from the surface, 
37° F. (5.6° C). The coldest month is February, when the 
averages are : surface, 32° F. (0° C.) ; at ten fathoms, 33.8° 
F. (1.25° C.) ; at twenty fathoms, 36.5° F. (2.5° C.). From 
the few observations I have taken of the Labrador, the 
average surface temperature in summer varies from 40° 
to 45 ° F. In the summer of 1900, Mr. R. A. Daly of the 
Brown-Harvard expedition made some serial readings of 
the temperatures in the coastal waters on days when abun- 
dant cod could be taken from the schooner on which 
the temperatures were determined. Two carefully cali- 
brated thermometers gave accordant results. A few ex- 
amples of the serial readings may be of interest as showing 
how very cold may be the water in which the cod appears 
to thrive. The tables also indicate the density of the 
water as collected in a "Mill" bottle at various depths. 
The rapid changes of temperature and of salinity in a few 
fathoms are noteworthy. 

First Series 

At anchor, three and one-half miles west of Cape Pomi- 
adluk, Labrador; 8 p.m., July 31. Air temperature, 
11.3° C. (52.3° F.). 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 



293 



Depth in Fathoms 


Temperature, t 


Specific Gravity at 


Cent. 


Fahr. 


Temperature t 


Surface 


7.0° 


44.6° 


1.01965 


1 


5.7 


42.1 


1.02045 


2 


5.5 


41.9 


1.02060 


3 


5.3 


41.5 


1.02065 


4 


2.1 


35.9 


1.02220 


5 


.4 


32.7 


1.02355 


6.5 (bottom) 


.3 


32.5 


1.02390 



4. 



Second Series 

At anchor in Summer's Cove, Aillik Bay ; noon, August 
Many cod jigged, at all depths from three to ten fathoms. 



Depth in Fathoms 


Temperature, t 


Specific Gravity at 


Cent. 


Fahr. 


Temperature t 


Surface 


6.2° 


43.1° 


1.01980 


1 


5.7 


42.1 


1.019S0 


2 


3.5 


38.3 


1.02070 


3 


8.2 


37.0 


1.02125 


4 


1.2 


34.2 


1.02285 


5 


.5 


32.9 


1.02355 


6 


.3 


32.5 


1.02375 


7 


.1 


32.2 


1.02385 


8 


- .2 


31.7 


1.02420 


9 


- .2 


31.7 


1.02450 


10 


- .3 


31.5 


1.02485 


11 


- .3 + 


31.4 


1.02490 


12 


- .5 


31.1 


1.02495 


13 (bottom) 


- .55 


31.0 


1.02510 



294 



LABRADOR 



Even in late summer the temperature of the water 
in the (ice-free) northern fiords remains very low. This 
fact is illustrated in the groups of serial readings taken 
during a visit of the same party to Nachvak Bay. One 
such group is represented in a 

Third Series 

Locality, on rocky bar three miles east of Hudson's 
Bay Company station in Nachvak Bay and about seventeen 
miles from the mouth of the fiord ; 2 p.m. , September 4, 1900. 
Air temperature, about 12.5° C. (44.5° F.). 



Depth in Fathoms 


Temperature, t 


Specific Gravity at 


Cent. 


Fahr. 


Temperature t 


Surface 


3.9° 


39.0° 


1.02380 


1 


3.3 


37.9 


1.02430 


3 


2.2 


36.0 


1.02510 


5 


.5 


32.9 


1.02595 


10 


.4 


32.7 


1.02600 


14* 


.3 


32.5 


1.02620 



From these (hitherto unpublished) observations obtained 
in 1900, it appears that the water of the northern fiords, 
at depths greater than about twenty fathoms, never rises 
sensibly above the freezing-point of fresh water. 

There is little doubt that the cod does not travel far in 
its annual migration. After spawning, the school simply 
moves out into deeper water on the slopes of the con- 
tinental plateau or on the Grand Banks. There in depths 
of from eighteen to seventy fathoms they browse about. 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 



295 



Though this fish prefers such a range of depth, it may be 
trapped in water as shallow as two fathoms or as deep as 
three hundred fathoms. To the most favoured depths the 
animal retires after the spawning season, which is also that 
of optimum temperature along the immediate Labrador 
shore, has been passed. In rhythmic fashion the cod 
returns each year to its birthplace with the shoal, and 
haunts the same neighbourhood throughout its short season 
of inshore life. 



North 
Latitude 


Locality 


Arrival 


Close of Fishery 


Duration op 
Fishery 


51° 30' 


Cape Bauld 


June 20 


October 20 


122 days 


52° 


Chateau Bay 


June 20 


October 1 


102 days 


53° 24' 


Batteau 


July 12 


October 1 


80 days 


54° 26' 


Indian Harbour 


July 15 


October 1 


78 days 


54° 56' 


Cape Harrison 


July 18 


October 1 


75 days 


55° 27' 


Hopedale 


July 20 


October 1 


73 days 


55° 52' 


Davis Inlet 


July 28 


October 1 


65 days 


56° 33' 


Nain 


July 28 


October 1 


65 days 


57° 30' 


Okkak 


July 28 


October 1 


65 days 


58° 30' 


Hebron 


August 15 


September 15 


32 days 



The shoal arrives on the coast about a week later for 
every degree of latitude farther north. But, as codfish 
are spread over the whole coast of over a thousand miles 
simultaneously during August and September, the later 
arrival in the north cannot be due to a south-to-north mo ve- 
ment of the same individual fish in a single shoal. The 
first fish at St. Anthony (on the Treaty shore of Newfound- 
land) appear about May 25; those at Cartwright, about 
July 25. In Europe the advance-guard reach the Nor- 



296 LABRADOR 

wegian coast in January, host following host in a north- 
easterly direction. Sometimes they are delayed by the 
coldness of the season, and may then not run in until March. 
Professor Hind has prepared the preceding table of arrival 
and departure in average years at different latitudes on the 
Labrador. It may be noted that the cod of the western 
Atlantic coast ranges from Cape Hatteras to the Gulf of 
Boothnia in lat. 75° north. 

The smaller fish leave the shore first ; the larger ones re- 
main on the near banks till well into November, when they 
withdraw into deeper water. Buffon said they retired to 
the polar seas, but it seems impossible that they go very 
far. Some Labrador cod are known to winter on the Grand 
Banks, as some with Frenchmen's banking hooks sticking 
in their mouths have been captured by the Labrador crews. 

As cod began to show real or apparent failure on the New- 
foundland coast, and then on the Grand Banks, the great 
fleet of fishing vessels began to turn its bows northward. 
First, a few venturesome fishermen crossed the Strait of 
Belle Isle without having wetted a line or net, and risked 
their summer's catch off the Labrador coast. These early 
pioneers were richly rewarded, and others soon followed 
in their wake. As it became imperative for more and more 
families to seek a living from Labrador, many, who had no 
means of obtaining schooners of their own, managed to 
find their way north as "" freighters," with their more 
fortunate brethren. Arrived on the Labrador, a family 
of " freighters" builds a rude summer "tilt" at some spot 
suggested by their previous experience, and then fish from 
the land in small boats, returning in the same way in the 
autumn. Thus commenced the great exodus of men, 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 297 

women, and children that every year starts for Labrador 
from Newfoundland as soon as the ice of winter breaks up 
and the journey becomes possible. At length these so- 
called summer settlers pushed as far north as Cape Harri- 
gan, and the floaters as far as Cape Chidley. Of late years, 
however, an ebb tide has set in, and more fish is taken in 
the Straits and along the southern shore than in the north, 
and many of the northern summer settlements have been 
abandoned. 

On first consideration the Labrador voyage does not 
sound particularly enterprising. But there are features 
about it which are not immediately apparent. The 
entire living of these pioneers depends on the fishery, for 
the fur catching in Newfoundland is almost a negligible 
quantity as far as most of the men are concerned. Only 
of late years has enough work at the Sydney (Nova Scotia) 
mines or steel works, or at the iron mines on Bell Island, 
Newfoundland, been available, in case a family is left with 
nothing for the winter. Even that is not open to all. 
Labradormen have only one string to their bows, so that 
the daily increasing anxiety from not finding fish as the 
summer wears away tells heavily on the skipper. I re- 
member one poor fellow tying an anchor round his neck 
and jumping over the side of the schooner in the night. 
He came up with the cable in the morning. 

The mainstay of many of these men to-day, especially 
the southern men, is the little plot of land at home, which 
is attended by the aged or by those incapacitated and able 
to be spared from the long Labrador voyage. On this 
home patch they grow enough potatoes, cabbages, and 
turnips to "put them through the winter," if only a hand- 



298 LABRADOR 

ful or two of flour is available. Most of the homesteads 
also have a few sheep, and possibly a cow as well. Most of 
the fishermen spin their own wool, and make their own 
boots from the skins of their cattle and of seals which they 
tan in their net barking pots. They have thus no fear of 
utter destitution. 

Still, I have seen many of these people showing in the 
spring all the signs of meagre diet through the long winter 
months. Unfortunately, to keep a cow or garden is practi- 
cally impossible in the north, owing to the numbers of dogs 
used on the coast. Moreover, when the whole family has to 
leave for Labrador and the home must be closed, unless 
a neighbour can be found to look after things, the supplies 
from the tiny "farm" are necessarily cut off. 

The schooners in the financial reach of most of the men 
are home-made products of soft wood, i.e. spruce and fir 
cut from their own bays, and mostly only iron-fastened. 
The vessels are often very small and also cheaply found in 
the most necessary of all their outfit, the holding gear. 
They have to carry such quantities of fishing gear that they 
are very crowded on deck, as well as below. The crew 
need so many boats that throughout most of the long 
voyage the small schooner will have to tow one or two be- 
hind. This necessity very considerably impairs the sea- 
going quality of the schooner. The salt nets and puncheons 
for oil are bulky; spare canvas and gear, if the crew is 
fortunate enough to be able to afford any, fill much of the 
remaining space. When, therefore, the time comes to take 
in " freighters," men, women, and children, with all their 
personal and fishery outfit as well, it is little wonder that 
the dangers and discomforts are greatly increased. 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 299 

Many times I have seen these vessels with the space 
below decks divided only by chalk marks on the inner 
lining of the hold, to indicate the few feet allotted to each 
crew and family. The separation of sexes and privacy 
for women is inadequate at best, and frequently to all 
intents and purposes absent. I have attended confinements 
and almost every kind of sickness in these vessels where one 
could scarcely stand up. I have seen suffering aboard them 
that I trust none of my own kith and kin will ever have to 
experience. The natural, simple kindness of the fishermen 
surely stands them in good stead. The fact that crowds 
of women and children are battened down in the holds of 
these vessels in rough weather is too suggestive to need 
detailed description. The carrying of single girls on these 
vessels has led to many troubles also, and I have never 
ceased to deplore the carrying of females as part of the crews 
of fishing vessels that are months away from home and 
civilization. It is a matter of profound gratitude that the 
opening up of other work is lessening the necessity for it, 
but it should long ago have been made illegal. 

The freighters are often so close to the decks and beams 
that it is impossible even to sit up without care. When 
the weather is rough, the hatches must be closed, and then 
no daylight can get below. Meanwhile the "lumber" 
makes it impossible to get about on deck in a breeze to 
handle the vessel. Such schooners, therefore, have to pick 
their way along the shore, "keep inside all the runs/' and 
always, if possible, get an anchorage at night. This be- 
comes doubly essential on the return voyage in the autumn, 
when the sudden storms sweep down off the high land and 
the proverbial gales of the "roaring forties" make it hard 



800 LABRADOR 

for even well-found craft of that tonnage to live through 
them. 

Owing to the method of fishing, it is of paramount im- 
portance to secure a good place for the trap-net. A fisher- 
man may have built a summer house and stage, have left 
boats and gear and salt on the coast, and yet if he comes 
down a day after another man, he may find his trap-net 
berths already seized by the crew of some schooner an- 
chored near. The late comer may, therefore, after all, 
have little chance of getting a cargo or " voyage." He has 
usually no chance of going elsewhere to look for one. Fish 
"sets in shore" as soon as the ice opens, possibly even 
before. "Snapper" men will be able, by going early, to 
run home with a "voyage" from the southernmost section 
of the coast, and get down in time for another in the far 
north, before it is too late for fish. The result is that the 
rush north commences long before the ice is gone, and craft 
are everywhere pushing north through lanes and leads in 
the ice, taking incalculable risks which occasionally end 
in disaster. The admirable skill and magnificent handling 
of their vessels succeed in averting accidents to a degree 
which surprises one the more he is familiar with the in- 
cidents of such a journey. 

As if these were not sufficient troubles, the heavy fogs 
which do prevail at times off the Labrador coast are most 
common in the spring of the year, and not a single pre- 
caution in the way of a warning bell or fog-horn has yet 
been placed to help the schooners from one end of Labrador 
to the other, except the Canadian station at Point Amour, 
sixty miles up the Strait of Belle Isle, where there is a steam 
fog-horn. Until two years ago, not a single light of any 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 301 

kind whatever existed along this same area, and now only 
two small lighthouses on dark, wintry nights serve to guide 
these fisherfolk along more than one thousand miles of coast. 
This fact becomes more significant when one remembers 
that most of the craft are, as has been stated, obliged to 
run along the reefs and islands, and are not able to keep to 
the open sea and run home " on the outside." The average 
mariner would consider that at least a good chart of the 
journey on which the vessels were bound was a prime es- 
sential, without which no one would be likely to venture. 
But regretfully we must add that no such thing exists. 
The present survey is so imperfect that in many places only 
dotted outlines indicate the actual shore-line, while many 
shoals and hidden dangers are either inaccurately placed 
or not marked at all. 

Fortunately, the tides of the southern part of Labrador 
are, as far as navigation goes, practically unimportant, 
though they are often, and more especially with northwest 
to northeast winds, too strong for the big nets. 

The rise and fall of the tide is about six feet as far as 
Cape Harrigan. But as Cape Chidley is neared, the tides 
grow stronger and rise higher, till in Hudson Strait they 
rise thirty-five to forty feet, and run six to eight knots an 
hour. Boiling whirlpools and eddies seethe in the current 
of Gray Straits, and navigation in a schooner is, even at 
best, both difficult and dangerous. 

In view of all the dangers, one must feel proud of this 
crowd of emigrant fisherfolk, — proud of their physical 
courage, their self-reliant resourcefulness, of that big heart 
which makes them willing to " venture out" early each 
summer. 



302 LABBADOB 

Progress in methods of catching the fish more quickly 
and safely, and with less personal exposure, has also marked 
the lapse of the years, though the primeval hand-line and 
hook is still the only gear to which many of the poorer men 
can attain. A hook-and-line man with work and tolerable 
fortune should catch an average of fifty quintals a year. 
As he has practically no expense but the purchase of salt, 
his average catch, along with his other possible sources of 
revenue, will afford a living. He has less anxiety as he 
has no valuable nets to lose, — for which many mortgage 
all they possess and then lose the nets. He is certain never 
to make an absolute blank, and he has considerably more 
time for other work. But he can never nowadays get 
" rich " in worldly possessions, and therefore nearly all aspire 
to "get twine," if they can. 

The main difficulty with hook-and-line fishing is the 
difficulty of obtaining bait. Caplin are excellent bait, 
but when they are plentiful, cod can feed on live ones, and, 
being glutted, do not take the hook well. When cod are 
plentiful still on the banks, the caplin have left the fishing 
grounds. Lance, a fish like a small eel, have to be hauled 
at the bottoms of inlets far from the fishing grounds, and 
even then are not always obtainable. Crews of men have 
to spend all day rowing to get enough to supply the com- 
bined crews that have spared a man apiece to send them. 
Most bait, to be of service, must be quite fresh. The enter- 
prising Captain Bartlett of Turnavik, Mr. Croucher at 
Battle, Mr. Grant at Blanc Sablon, now use small steamers 
for no other purpose than to get bait and carry fish and 
salt. Squids are seldom obtainable in Labrador. But 
some men have barrels of salt squids sent down. They 






THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 303 

are useful, but not the best, and cost the fishermen fifteen 
to fifty cents per hundred. They are tough, and hold well 
on a hook. Mussels would be used if they would hold on 
the hooks. Bits of sea-gulls that the men shoot for the 
purpose are also employed. Even artificial bait has been 
tried with modified success, — rubber fish with hooks at- 
tached. Little net bags enclosing baits of mussels and 
gelatine — an invention of Mr. John Hay ward — have been 
used with some success. 

But the bait question is ever the hook-and-liner's worst 
difficulty. The tendency is to give up the puzzle and use 
what is known as a jigger, a piece of lead the shape of a 
fish, with two enormous hooks projecting from the bottom. 
This is " jigged" up and down about a fathom from the 
bottom , and sometimes hooks fish very quickly . It naturally 
sticks into the fish anywhere it strikes him, and the result 
is that many fish get away with bellies ripped open, eyes 
pulled out, etc. The shoals seem to follow these injured 
fish off the ground, though rather for the purpose of eating 
them than from fear of a similar fate. In some districts 
the use of the jigger is forbidden, as it is believed to be 
detrimental to the fishery. 

The first advance in methods seems to have been putting 
more than one hook on a line, till the present system of long 
lines, called "bultows" or "trawls/' with as many as three 
thousand hooks on a line, was developed. Lines up to seven 
miles in length have been used. This is still a very favour- 
ite method, and is practically within reach of the poorest. 
Many large cargoes are now " made " on the inshore grounds 
in this way, as they have been made for many years on the 
Grand Banks far out at sea. But even this method has its 



304 LABBADOB 

drawbacks. It involves both great risks and great per- 
sonal exposure. It allows so many wounded fish to escape 
that it is prohibited altogether along many sections of the 
coast. This prohibition is accomplished by getting local 
laws sanctioned by the Legislature and included in the 
annual " Fishery Laws." In one place it was enforced by the 
residents at the end of their long guns ; as they say, " As well 
be hung as starve." Oddly enough, at the opposite side 
of the sandy beach where they live, hand-lining has been 
ruined by west-coast boats with bultows, and the people 
who live there have, in consequence, fallen on very evil 
times. 

For this purpose the bottom beam and other trawls of 
the old country were found useless. Quite recently the 
enterprising firm of Bowring Brothers purchased a modern 
steam trawler, and tried all around the coast and islands, 
but met with so little success that the attempt has been 
abandoned. Gill-nets, which came next, are but little 
used for cod. Cod seem ordinarily too lazy in disposition 
even to put their heads hard enough into a mesh to be 
caught. This is, of course, very unlike the more agile 
salmon and trout. The large-mesh cod net, however, 
anchored on the bottom, still has its advocates, and at times 
many cod become entangled in the leaders of the trap-nets. 

The advent of the large seine-nets marked a very material 
advance in the rapidity with which the fish could be taken, 
and it is still at certain times and places the most success- 
ful method known. The net itself is an expensive affair. 
It is on an average eighty feet deep and over seven hundred 
feet in length. It has corks on the top to keep its upper 
end on the surface and leads on the bottom to keep the 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 305 

foot down. It needs a great deal of rope to work it, and, 
as a rule, a large crew of men. On an average, such a net 
contains five hundred pounds of twine, and costs, ready to 
go into the water, about 1500. The crew of the long, 
specially constructed boat numbers seven men, one of whom 
is the " seine master"; he directs the oarsmen, himself 
standing up forward on the lookout for shoals of fish. 
This net can be used only in more or less shallow water, 
where tides are slack and where the bottom is smooth and 
perfectly sandy. The purse-seine, a variety which can be 
pulled together into a bag below, and so fished far from 
land in deep water, is not used on our coast. To enable 
the master to see fish in ten fathoms of water, he uses a 
" fish glass," a metal funnel with a plain glass bottom, which 
he pushes down below the ruffled surface of the sea. An 
advantage of the purse-seine net is that the fisherman 
pursues the fish with it, instead of waiting for them to come 
to him. It satisfies also the mind restless to be hunting 
and working, rather than, like the lazy spider, merely 
sitting down and taking the chance of the prey coming 
voluntarily along. 

The latest contrivance, however, and the one now gener- 
ally used, is called a cod trap. It is practically nothing 
but a large room with walls and floor of twine, and the sur- 
face of the sea for a roof. It has a door on the landward, 
into the middle of which passes an upright net partition, 
called a leader. The leader is made to the land or rocks 
along which the fish are wont to swim and feed in their 
great shoals. When the room or trap is seen by the crew 
in the boat overhead to contain fish, the doors are pulled 
up, and then the floor is passed over the boat till all the fish 



306 LABBADOB 

can be baled out with large dippers. In this way as many 
as one hundred quintals of fish have on many occasions 
been caught at one haul, so that a whole year's wages can 
be easily earned if there is one fortnight's good trapping 
in the year. Nevertheless, as fish do not go to every point 
every year, some fishermen who rely entirely on their traps 
will sometimes make an absolute blank of it. The trap 
is, moreover, exceedingly expensive, with its strong ropes, 
heavy anchors, and immense weight of twine. A good one 
costs between $300 and $400, containing three hundred and 
fifty to five hundred pounds of twine. It is about three hun- 
dred and fifty feet in circumference, eighty feet deep, and 
may need a leader from fifty to sixty fathoms long. In 
shallow waters, as in the Straits of Belle Isle, the trap may 
be only thirty feet deep. Being very heavy and unwieldy, 
it is often an impossible task to take it up in time to avoid 
bad weather, or quickly enough to save it from driving ice. 
The result is that in the sudden storms to which the coast 
is liable, great losses occur. Honest men are suddenly 
thrown into hopeless debt, as they have had to raise the 
net on credit, and perhaps their sole method of getting 
a voyage is lost in a moment. 

The old two-handed jacks, or bully boats, which, in the 
autumn months, used to venture far off from the land with 
hand-lines, now lie rotting on the rocks at all the harbours 
on the coast. The fishery is developing into a great gamble. 
A man casts all he has and all he can borrow on a single 
issue. At times it renders him a magnificent and rapid 
return. If the fish come to his trap he obtains a sudden 
wealth, whereas if the fish do not come he goes home a 
broken man. 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 307 

In many cases the merchants and traders own traps , and 
the crew operating the trap take, as their share, one-half 
or three-quarters of the first caught. Some traders give 
even four-fifths of the catch to the planter who works the 
trap for them. But the latter is expected to turn in all the 
fish he catches to the man who supplies the net, and to 
purchase all his stores from him also. That is, he will be 
really paid in kind, and a balance due him will be carried 
over on the books more often than paid in cash. This, 
however, has changed for the better in late years, and the 
payment of cash balances is becoming more common year 
by year. 

When the fish is actually landed on the stages, it is still 
far from becoming cash, and it runs all sorts of risks and 
dangers before it gets to market. Originally all Labrador 
fish went to St. John's for exportation ; to-day much of it 
is exported direct. We have as yet no cold-storage traffic. 

The fish is cured systematically. A table with notches 
in suitable places is fixed in a covered stage running out 
over the sea. To this a removable front with supports is 
added each spring after the ice goes, and taken in during the 
autumn. A shoot on the right hand of the splitter through 
this temporary part of the stage carries the offal, consisting 
of the head and entrails, into the water below. The boat 
ties to the front of the stage, and the fish are picked up with 
"pews" and thrown upon the pounds built up on the top. 
One person, usually a woman or child, picks up the fish 
and puts them on the table to the right of the "header" 
and the " throat er," who stands on the side of the table 
near the sea. The throat is cut with one hand, while the 
other hand passes the carcass to the header, who tears off 



308 LABRADOR 

the head, scoops out the entrails, and rapidly passes on the 
body to the splitter. The splitter sits or leans standing 
on the opposite side, and keeps the stream of fish running 
on in the same way, the good portion falling into a large 
tub of water, the bones falling out through the shoot. 
Meanwhile, a washer stirs the tub and removes the washed 
bodies. These he wheels off and piles up in rows, the Salter 
following along with a barrow of salt. With a wooden 
shovel the Salter shakes over the rows the amount of salt 
appropriate to the market for which the fish is destined. 
To save salt, men sometimes throw the fish bodies into tubs 
of pickle, making the pickle strong enough for a raw potato 
to float in it. It takes about one pound of salt to salt 
a pound and a half of cod. Washing out again takes one 
minute per fish. Salt wastes in bulk when stored, and 
there is a constant anxiety lest too much salt should be 
stored, or, far worse, there should not be enough salt to meet 
a sudden big catch of fish. This has often been the case, 
and I have seen many a quintal spoil and nets full of fish 
not being hauled because no salt was obtainable. 

To dry, fish needs sun and a proper set of the wind. The 
actual work of catching is not over till late in the year, and 
at that time the right combination of a westerly wind and 
a bright, not too hot sun does not come very often. The 
least rain, fog, or frost makes both drying and shipping 
impossible. While awaiting a clear day, the fish may be 
quickly stacked under shelter, or at least turned face down 
in small " yaffles," or bundles. The fish's own thick skin 
is a fair waterproof cover. Birch rinds, and even canvas 
bags, are used by some of the more enterprising men. Fish 
that gets wet once or twice never dries really white, especially 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERT 309 

around the edges. Hot sun also spoils fish very quickly; 
sunburnt fish turns black and slimy. This, however, is 
not so likely to happen in the bracing climate which, in that 
respect at least, is adapted to the fisherman's needs. The 
most interesting and skilled part of the curing process is the 
splitting of the fish, the removal of the backbone. Women 
may cut off the head and take out the entrails. They also 
wash out and even salt the bulks, but a really smart split- 
ter is always the best man on a " room " or a vessel. 
Good men have been said each to split a hundred quintal 
between morning and evening; that is, have cut out the 
spine, from head to tail, of ten thousand cod in one day. 
Moreover, the bone must be all neatly removed, and the 
flesh must not be injured. I have timed a good splitter who 
finished fourteen fish in a minute, whereas I myself took 
nearly a minute to a fish, and then did it poorly. 

The method of paying fishermen in Labrador has been, 
as in Newfoundland, almost entirely a barter system. 
The merchant fits out all " planters, " who really carry on 
the fishery. In return, he expects all the fish caught. 
He then gives him a "winter's diet" out of the proceeds, 
if they are large enough; if not, the planters expect the 
diet on credit. They do not expect to turn in money 
earned in other ways towards this debt, and the law pro- 
hibits money earned at the seal-fishery being stopped for 
cod-fishery debts. In the spring a new outfit on credit 
is called for, and thus large debts pile up, which the mer- 
chants know they can never expect to collect in full, and 
which the planter soon begins to consider he does not really 
owe. They have been called red-letter debts. 

An example may be given. In 1896 one firm of mer- 



310 LABRADOR 

chants trading in Labrador assigned. Their creditors found 
on their books as "assets" the debts of four hundred and 
eleven souls, including women and children, people who 
are among the very poorest; these people owed the firm 
over 164,000. The value of these " assets" was returned 
as "nil." 

Thus the system was wofully bad for both parties. 
The fisherman, generally illiterate, was at the absolute 
mercy of the merchant, and lived and died a slave and in 
debt. The merchant was often ruined by bad debts. 
For not only did some fisherman, imitating Ananias, only 
turn in part of the catch and represent it as the whole, but 
often he became hopeless and apathetic, and lost all stimu- 
lus to do his best. Again, some men would temporarily 
give to friends who had good credit the bulk of their catch, 
in order to prevent its being absorbed in payment of their 
own debt. The fish thus held back might be bartered or 
sold to outside traders for goods such as tinned milk, sugar, 
and such " luxuries" which they could not hope to obtain 
on credit from their own merchant. To prevent such 
frauds, a kind of espionage had to be exerted, and the 
catches of a suspected planter were watched as the season 
progressed. Convicted planters were turned off from 
their merchants and no one would take them on. Thus 
resulted in the end the worst cases of poverty, — cases, to 
my mind, not caused by the bad fishery, but by the bad 
system. 

Of late years, things have been improving, and a more 
general cash basis has come into vogue, though still there 
is room for improvement. 

The planter himself must have men to help him, and these 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 311 

he can either ship for wages, or engage on shares paid 
out of the " voyage." The pay of the shipped man has risen 
to $100, and even to $130, with food for the season. For 
that sum he must do everything the master tells him that 
will benefit the voyage, and may be called on to work all 
hours of the night and day from the first of May to the first 
of November. It increases the "gamble" considerably to 
have all shipped men. If you "miss the fish" and earn 
nothing, you are still liable for all wages, but if you strike 
the fish, you will make very large profits. For a man is 
well worth 1300 in a good year. Little as their wage seems, 
most of the men prefer employment under this system. 
They at least will have flour and molasses for their families, 
whatever happens, these wages, less advances for oil- 
skins, boots, etc., being always paid in cash. 

The shareman in this country usually agrees for "half 
his hand." That is, the catch is divided by the number of 
men, including the owner or planter, and each shareman 
gets half a share. He has no expenses except clothing. 
Often the planter cannot, however, obtain men on these 
terms, and is obliged to take a full-share man. These 
men feed and clothe themselves and provide their own salt, 
but take a full share of fish. The more men a planter 
engages, the more fish he can handle and expect to catch, 
but the more numerous are the shares into which the catch 
must be divided. On an average, the shareman gets every 
eighth fish out of the trap for himself. It has often puzzled 
me how the hired man with $100, less expenses, could live, 
much less feed his family ; at best he can scarcely do more 
than merely exist. 

The following statements taken at random will illustrate 



312 



LABBADOR 



how pitiful is the living of a hook-and-line man in a poor 
year. Both men, A. B. and C. D., are well known to me 
as capable and industrious. One cannot wonder that they 
may be in perpetual debt to the merchant. 

A. B. is a "handy man"; his wife is dead and he has 
eight children, most of whom are young. His financial 
year may be described in informal bookkeeping thus: — 



Income 



Caught on hook and line, 

30 qtl. of fish at $3.20 $96.00 
Salmon, none ; easterly 

seas destroyed nets 
Oil from codfish, balanced 

against salt for fish 
Winter work, logging for 

mill 44.00 

$140.00 

Balance against A. B. 10.80 
$150.80 



Expenses 



Nails, oakum, paint, 




rope, etc 


$4.00 


Hooks and line . . . 


2.50 


16 bbla. flour (cheapest 




possible) .... 


80.00 


5 bags hard bread . . 


19.00 


50 gal. molasses . . . 


22.50 


12 lb. cheapest tea 


4.80 


10 lb. oleomargarine . 


2.00 


1 bbl. salt pork . . 


16.00 



$150.80 



A. B. had no potatoes for seed, no cabbage seed; no 
money for powder, shot, caps, crockery, kerosene, matches, 
boots, oilskins, clothing, house repairs, tools, bedclothes, 
etc. ; no luxuries, no doctor's fees, no church expenses. 

C. D. has a wife, two small sons, and three small daughters, 
owns no nets, shared this year in two salmon-nets with an- 
other man. His account for the year stands: — 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 



31; 



Income 


Expenses 


Caught on hook and line 




Boat, $5 ; salt, $6 ; lines 




12 qtl. of cod ... 


$38.40 


and hooks, $2.50 . . 


$13.50 


Value of oil from same at 




Fishing boots, $4; oil- 




30/* per gal 


6.00 


skin, $3.50 .... 


7.50 


Share of salmon, 1£ qtl. . 


7.50 


Flour, 13 bbl. at $5; 




Work on roads .... 


3.00 


molasses 45 gal. at 45J* 


85.25 


Herring, one bbl. . . . 


2.00 


Hard bread, $11.40; tea, 




Work on lumber and at 




$4.00 


15.40 


mill 


55.00 


Oleomargarine, $1 ; ker- 




Potatoes sold .... 


14.00 


osene, $2 


3.00 




$125.90 


Kettle, $1 ; matches, 




Balance against CD. . 


.75 


thread, needles, and 








soap 

\ 


2.00 




$126.65 


5126.65 



It will be observed that CD. has not nearly enough fats 
in his food-supply to sustain him properly even in a warm 
climate. Like A. B. he lacks most of the civilized neces- 
saries and luxuries of every description. 

The most important change that has of late years come 
over our fisheries has been the one most needed of all ; that 
is, the chance of obtaining remunerative work during the 
long winter, when the fishery is out of the question. Now- 
adays, a man who fails need not see semi-starvation and 
scurvy, and even death, overtake his family before he can 
again find a source of supplies. Such results of starva- 
tion I have seen more than once. Pulp and lumber mills, 
mines, and other industries may now afford work for 
most of those who return south from Labrador before they 
" freeze in" for the winter. A somewhat similar improve- 



314 LABRADOR 

ment has followed in Labrador itself, though trapping fur- 
bearing animals is there naturally the second string to the 
settler's bow. 

Few fishermen grow rich. Some, however, are able to 
put by considerable sums, and there are as happy and com- 
fortably provided families among our fisherfolk as can be 
found among any artisan class in the world. The very 
nature of the calling begets a healthy body, a simple 
nature, and an easily contented mind. Unaccustomed to 
luxuries, the lack of material wealth causes no vain regrets. 
Inured as they are to privations, the smallest acquisition 
gives pleasure. They may not aspire to have servants 
under them ; they are their own masters at least throughout 
their working days. They have an interest in and love 
for their occupation, the like of which one can scarcely 
credit to a factory hand, who is always making a piece 
of a complicated whole, and never finishing a job, or 
can credit to a clerk on a high stool everlastingly add- 
ing up figures. The men love their calling, and with 
sound reason. For sheer love of it, I know several, who, 
after trying Canada or the United States, have returned 
eventually to their old occupation as being a a far better 
job." In what other calling are poor, working, unedu- 
cated men so able to enjoy the luxury of independence, the 
prize which riches might seem able to purchase for the 
wealthy only, and yet to which many rich men never in 
any way attain ! 

When the French Revolution began, the fishers of cod 
on the Newfoundland-Labrador shores were already estab- 
lished in their more prosaic industry. In 1812 the catch 
of fish on the Labrador and French shore combined is 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 



315 



said to have been 29,500 hundredweight. The catch in 
some of the later years may be given : — 

In 1814 44,650 hundredweight 

1821 49,652 hundredweight 

1823 40,399 hundredweight 

1824 42,240 hundredweight 

In 1845 two hundred vessels from Newfoundland, mostly 
from Conception Bay, went to Labrador ; they are reported 
to have employed five thousand men. In 1851 it was 
estimated that seven hundred vessels went to the Labra- 
dor from Newfoundland, carrying from ten to fifteen thou- 
sand men; their catch was computed to be between one 
hundred and sixty thousand and one hundred and eighty 
thousand hundredweight. Harvey states that in 1880 
from one thousand to twelve hundred schooners carrying 
over thirty thousand people went to Labrador; of these 
about one hundred vessels were from Canada. 

Prior to 1860 no accurate account was kept as to the 
annual takings in Labrador. The trade report issued by 
His Excellency, Sir William MacGregor, in 1906, states that 
for the thirty years preceding the average annual export 
of dry codfish from the whole colony of Newfoundland has 
been 1,246,664 quintals (hundredweight) at an average 
value of $4,830,079. The report shows the average annual 
export direct from Labrador in various periods to have 
totalled as follows: — 



1860-64 . 


192,051 hundredweight 


1865-66 . 


197,885 hundredweight 


1873-77 . 


. 300,854 hundredweight 


1878-82 . 


. 371,681 hundredweight 


1885-89 . 


. 216,434 hundredweight 



316 



LABRADOR 



1890-94 .... 257,314 hundredweight 

1895-99 .... 220,150 hundredweight 

1900-04 .... 219,948 hundredweight 

1905-06 .... 296,553 hundredweight 

Besides the fish exported directly each year, an average 
of three hundred and fifty thousand quintals is carried from 
Labrador to Newfoundland and exported thence. This 
gives a mean annual output from Labrador of about six 
hundred thousand quintals. In 1906 and 1907 the figures 
are : — 



Exported Direct 


Value 


Sent to 
Newfoundland 


Value 


1906, 250,857 quintals 

1907, 289,493 quintals 


$1,030,492 
1,013,227 


545,000 quintals 
345,000 quintals 


$2,180,000 
1,380,000 



Grand Total 







Value 


1906 

1907 


795,857 quintals 
634,493 quintals 


$3,210,492 
2,393,227 



In 1905, 342,219 quintals, valued at SI, 237,329, were 
exported direct from the Labrador. In 1907 the entire 
export of dried codfish from Newfoundland and Labrador 
amounted to 1,422,445 quintals, valued at $7,873,172. 
The total product of the fisheries for the colony in that year 
was valued at $10,058,052. 

The average price during these years has varied very 
considerably, but on the whole has tended to improve, 



THE COD AND C0D-F1SHEEY 317 

and has reached as high for Labrador fish as $4 and even 
$4.20 per quintal, that for shore or Newfoundland fish 
having reached an average of $5.30. This difference in 
price needs explanation. It arises from the fact that cer- 
tain markets prefer the fish drier and harder salted than do 
other markets. In Labrador the fine days for drying fish are 
rare after the fishery is over; it is, therefore, better to 
ship the fish damper, or, as people say, "with only a day's 
sun," rather than wait perhaps weeks to be able to dry 
the fish hard. There is, however, one other alternative, 
and that is to take the fish south " green" or unwashed in 
salt, and finish the cure in Newfoundland. If a man has 
few fish and plenty of help, he can thus employ himself 
at a remunerative wage to raise the value of his Labrador 
catch to that of shore fish. But if he has much fish and 
work to do on his little farm at home, or perhaps other 
better " paying work," then he will ship direct from Labra- 
dor. It must be remembered that drying the fish entails 
loss of weight, and after all it may pay better to sell ten 
quintals at $3.50 a quintal than dry the same fish to 
eight quintals and sell at $4 or even $5 a quintal. More- 
over, some of the schooners have so many " freighters" 
and their gear to carry to and fro that they are unable to 
take their fish to Newfoundland whether they would wish 
it or not, while the merchants who have ordered steamers 
or schooners to go to Labrador for loads are so anxious 
for the fish to reach the markets early, that they will give 
at times considerable bonuses over the price arranged by 
the Chamber of Commerce. Last year men who refused 
$3.60 spot cash in Labrador realized only $3 to $3.20 in 
St. John's. 



318 LABRADOR 

The rapid loading, and the accepting of all the fish 
"Tal qual," i.e. just as it comes along, greatly encourages 
bad fish-making, and as the loading often goes on by flares 
after night, sometimes unsound fish will be slipped in, and 
a whole cargo injured or even spoiled. Moreover, the fish 
does not receive so severe a culling on the Labrador as it 
does in Newfoundland, and, indeed, is generally taken with- 
out culling. The merchants run very considerable risk in 
exporting fish. The hiring of their vessels, small as most of 
them are, is an expensive business, and the small margin 
left for profits when there has been a keen competition in 
prices to " finish a vessel," has left many an enterprising 
man sorry he ever " touched it." The vessels used are 
mostly square-rigged schooners, and old-fashioned small 
brigs and brigantines. Indeed, the industry is serving the 
useful purpose of helping to perpetuate this very interesting 
class of vessels, which everywhere else is becoming extinct. 
These vessels represent a distinct bond with the mother 
country, for they are mostly Welsh, with some from Devon- 
shire. They are handled by the type of sailor of long ago, 
men whom one would expect to step off Amyas Lee's vessel 
on its return from the Indies. These men are possessed of 
the material which made their prototypes so desirable an 
asset to their country. They are sailors to the soles of their 
boots, and amongst them are many of the most simple, 
God-fearing, contented men I have ever seen. The masters 
are generally part owners, and often mess with their crews 
as with a party of friends. Many a helpful hand do they 
lend our fishermen, for the vessels are bound to be out here 
by a certain date. Being slow and uncertain, the vessels 
often arrive two months early, and even have to wait three 



THE COB AND COD-FISHERY 319 

months for their complement of fish. During all that time 
their crews are the good geniuses of the little havens in 
which they are anchored, and the " skipper" and his medi- 
cine-chest are in continual demand. 

The itinerary of these visitors is somewhat as follows: 
September, leave Labrador for the Mediterranean ; thence 
in December to their homes ; then cargo of slate or ore pos- 
sibly to Hamburg; in March, to Cadiz for salt; then to 
Labrador by June, and so on back again. Once home in 
the year, if all goes well. They make a modest living, and 
are able to retire before old age incapacitates them. Some 
are lost in the " roaring forties," the latitudes in which they 
mostly ply their calling, and many are the stories of heroism 
and suffering on these vessels that the sea could unfold. 
On one occasion a skipper, deserted by his crew at Bonne 
Esperance, sailed his square-rigged schooner across the 
Atlantic alone to Gibraltar with a cargo of fish. Sometimes 
they will carry fish to the West Indies or Brazil, and then 
possibly return with molasses to St. John's before taking 
a final cargo to the Mediterranean. I have seen a vessel 
leave in late October with ice on her sides, and every one 
muffled up. In three days she will run into the warm 
atmosphere of the Gulf current, the men will be in their 
shirt-sleeves, and a few days later they will be eating fresh 
fruit in Spain. A very favourite holiday among these men 
is to get a lift across as far as Genoa, and perhaps work 
a passage out from Gibraltar, or come out again by way of 
England. 

Naturally there is considerable rivalry in making quick 
passages. The westward passages are always longest, 
the prevailing winds in the North Atlantic being from 



320 LABBADOR 

southwest to northwest. But the following examples show 
what can be done under favourable circumstances : — 

The square-rigged schooner William ran from Labrador 
to Patras, Greece, in twenty-three days. The square- 
rigged schooner Red Rose took only seventeen days to 
reach Genoa from Labrador. The fore-and-aft vessels can 
make fast round-trip passages. Captain McCrea's fore- 
and-aft schooner Clara left Harbour Grace, reached Gi- 
braltar in sixteen days ; lay there thirteen days ; went to 
Patras, Greece ; lay there fourteen days ; returned to Cadiz, 
loaded with salt, and was back in Harbour Grace in ninety- 
eight days. In my own fore-and-after, the Albert, I left 
St. John's and was anchored in Great Yarmouth, England, 
in twelve and a half days. No doubt quicker passages have 
been made than any of these. 

Of late years, Norwegian and Danish vessels, being 
"cheaper," have partly taken the trade from British mer- 
chants, but there are still firms patriotic enough to pay 
more in order to secure British bottoms. 

Italy is the best market for Labrador fish to-day, though 
up to 1904 Spain took most from us. Spain and Greece 
take quite a large quantity still. Of late years the United 
Kingdom has not taken so much, the ports to which we 
export being Liverpool, Exeter, and Bristol. The Portu- 
guese and Brazilians, who are the largest consumers of dry 
cod, like it very hard, and nearly all their fish goes from 
Newfoundland. The fish culled out as not suitable for 
other markets is shipped to the West Indies at a lower 
price. 

The culling of the fish is a most important measure, and 
though as a rule the men will avoid a "cull" if possible, it 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 321 

is really distinctly to their own interest. In self-defence, 
every buyer of fish should agree to insist on it. For the 
fish really varies immensely in value according to the qual- 
ity, and that depends far more on the making or curing 
than on the fish, except that big fish are, as a rule, more 
salable than small ones. Remove the cull and sell the fish 
"Tal qual," and at once all incentive to spend time on clean- 
liness disappears. It is almost like putting a premium on 
laziness and carelessness. As the Newfoundland and Lab- 
rador fish must compete in Europe with Norwegian and 
even French fish, the whole colony suffers with the loss of 
the good name of its marketed fish. It is an all-important 
issue to almost every one in the colony, as all are more or 
less dependent on King Cod. 

The printed forms on which receipts for fish are given by 
a large firm to its dealers or fishermen, show clearly how 
common it is to accept all Labrador fish as of the same 
value : — 

Received from 

Qtl. lb. 
Large 

Merchantable fish 

Medium 

Small 

Madeira 

West Indies 

Tal qual 

Inferior 

Damp 

Dun 

Slimy 

Labrador 

and also casks of gallons of oil 

Y 



322 LABRADOR 

To cure and dry a single quintal of fish uses salt and time, 
and costs money, but it often pays to cure the catch when 
it is not too large, for the price per quintal then rises so 
much that the net profit is actually greater. Five and one- 
quarter barrels of Cadiz salt or six and one-half barrels of 
Liverpool salt (29.7 gallons to barrel) will cure 2205 pounds 
of cod, — that is, 1435-1462 pounds of salt to 2205 pounds 
of dry cured fish. Salt comes to from twenty-five to thirty 
cents per quintal of dried fish. 

The markets are subject to very rapid fluctuations. A 
cargo scheduled for a certain port may arrive just too late, 
find the port glutted with other arrivals, and have to proceed 
farther, which means fresh port dues and expenses. There 
is thus a veritable race both in loading and in making the 
transatlantic journey. This has led to the employment 
of steamers to carry the fish; then the merchant finds 
the new difficulty that steamers large enough to pay ex- 
penses are likely to flood any local market to which they 
are consigned. 

Again, the consignee has at times thrown the cargo back 
on the merchant's hands, the condition of the fish not equal- 
ling that which he desires and to which he feels entitled. 
Sometimes the whole cargo will be actually returned to 
Newfoundland. This, however, is so ruinous to the mer- 
chant that he generally arranges for an arbitration to be 
held, and lower prices may be agreed upon. The result is 
some incentive to protest against accepting the agreed 
price. In addition, there is always the element of risk, 
unavoidable by the merchant, that the quality of the fish 
may have deteriorated on the passage. Very large losses 
have been made in this way by individuals, who are in turn 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 323 

compelled to bring losses on the fish-catchers when it is 
imperative for the merchant to compound with his creditors. 
The element of chance, that a bad voyage may, after all, 
turn out a good one, adds another attraction to fishing, 
however monotonous it may appear. The love of a gamble 
is innate in man. Of late years there has been a consider- 
ably larger quantity of fish exported by smaller men, but 
the tendency is to confine the actual export process to 
the larger firms. 

Naturally the Norwegian catch influences the total supply 
very materially, and a failure there means better prices 
here. The French can scarcely afford to export fish, for 
they are paid such high bounties for taking it to France. 

Happily for the fish-catcher, the markets for salt fish 
are not only opening up wonderfully, but the price obtain- 
able has also been steadily increasing, and has risen from 
2.22 cents per pound to 4.74 cents in the last six years. 
This, more than anything else, explains the general pros- 
perity of our people. For the rise in the market price is 
out of all proportion to any increase in the amount of fish 
taken. There is good reason to suppose that this rise in 
price will be maintained as long as the article exported 
is properly cured. The wealth and numbers of the 
peoples requiring this produce are steadily increasing, and 
other proteid foods are rising in price synchronously. It 
seems, therefore, that in this respect our future is still in 
our own hands, and that there are yet halcyon days in store 
for our folk that u go sailing out into the deep." 

The import duties imposed by our customers vary 
greatly. France prohibits foreign cod altogether, with a 
tariff of $4.68 per quintal, besides giving bounties to her own 



824 LABRADOR 

men. Spain charges $2.34 per quintal, Italy 40 cents only, 
Greece 38 cents, Portugal $2.14, Brazil $1.39, United States 
84 cents; Persia, of all countries, free import, and the 
United Kingdom, free as usual ! France pays 50 francs 
to each member of a crew drying fish away from France; 
30 francs to each member of a crew drying the fish in France ; 
approximately 10 francs on every quintal of salt fish shipped 
to transatlantic countries; 16 francs per quintal on ship- 
ments to cisatlantic countries; a bounty of 20 francs 
on cod roe brought back to France. So that besides the 
prohibitive duty on the fish of other countries, grants to 
foster French fisheries amount to approximately one and 
one-quarter million dollars per annum. That means that, 
if our fishermen were accorded similar privileges, they could 
almost afford to catch fish, get the bounty, and give the 
fish away. 

These important duties and bounties show that some 
countries do not value the codfish much, or they would 
welcome it in freely as a cheap food-stuff. Yet they strive 
all they can to make their own men go and catch it. Great 
are the mysteries of statesmanship ! 

Now the value to the human race, or any section of it, 
of a particular calling or industry or commodity cannot be 
measured altogether by the dollars each brings the govern- 
ment or the number of people it employs, though we are 
apt to apply these standards. If we did so, the liquor 
traffic would be classed among the most valuable to the 
race. Yet while the fishery is productive and constructive, 
the liquor trade is destructive, both of human capacity 
and of material. Probably of all industries the one of 
first importance to the British race is that which involves 



THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 325 

the following of the sea. For in the art of man-making no 
environment can surpass it, and sea-power means world- 
power. 

Few landsmen have ever given a thought to the influence 
exerted on mankind by the humble codfish. Nations have 
jealously watched these dreary wastes of icy, fog-bound 
waters, and spent human lives by the thousands in the 
years that are gone in the endeavour to turn the food and 
money that these finny hosts spell into their own treasuries, 
and to gain also the environment involved and its evolu- 
tionary advantages. As early as 1368 kings were granting 
rights to fish for cod in the North Sea. Henry the Fifth 
paid compensation to the king of Denmark for damage 
done by the English cod-fishermen to his. The Cabots' dis- 
covery of this north land opened up a great source of human 
food-supply which has been, and will be, of greater value 
than the diamonds of Golconda or the gold mines of the 
Rand. It was landlubbers ignorant of the value of these 
northern seas that made Canada in 1813 lightly give back to 
Newfoundland the coast from Blanc Sablon to Cape Chidley ; 
made England lightly give back to France the islands of Mi- 
quelon and St. Pierre, and the rights of fishing on the Treaty 
coast ; and permitted the American fishermen the privileges 
of the treaty of 1818. Our debt to this small denizen of the 
deep is far greater than those consider it who only view the 
fishery from a gastronomical or economical standpoint. 
Strange as it may seem, the codfish has been an invaluable 
factor in preserving and evolving that genius of the British 
race, which in God's providence at the time of the Invincible 
Armada alone allowed us to persist still free among the great 
powers. That genius, which four hundred years ago pre- 



326 LABRADOR 

served us from national crippling or from absolute deletion 
from the roll of great nations, is in danger of being lost by 
the general increase of wealth and luxury. 

I shall here only suggest the debt that the Catholics of 
Europe owe the codfish. The vast amount they consume 
is the best proof of the value at which they estimate him. 
But I can suppose that the family circle on many a Friday 
night would sit around the table with blank faces if it were 
not for this additional virtue of our friend, viz. his gratify- 
ing faculty for passing muster as eligible for dinner before 
an ecclesiastical inquisition which has placed all our staple 
articles under the ban. And for this discernment the world 
in return owes the authorities of the Church a very real 
debt, inasmuch as they so directly encourage in this way a 
calling so invaluable to mankind. 

Thus it cannot be said that, in praising the codfish, we 
have exaggerated his virtues. Not only has he bred a 
healthy race; he has invigorated a weak one. His oil 
has enabled us to battle successfully with the subtlest en- 
emy of our race, the tubercle bacillus, even in the face of 
all the wonderful discoveries of modern science and the 
hoards of money lavished on other methods. A couple of 
years ago, when the supply of cod-liver oil was short, the 
crude article rose in value in a couple of months from forty 
cents a gallon to $4 a gallon direct from the barrel. 

May the men of Labrador never need the emasculating 
paternal legislation of our neighbours in Europe, or the 
bounty system of " presents for good boys that venture out 
to sea" ! When the world beholds the spectacle of the Eng- 
lish, as a race that will not venture forth on the mighty 
waters without being stimulated by such adventitious aid, 



THE COB AND COD-FISHERY 327 

taxing those who have to stay home, then indeed may we 
pray again for our good genius in the form of a codfish. 
If ever that day comes, may our friend be put on the national 
flag, and let him rank three codfish with three lions. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE SALMON-FISHERY 
By W. T. Grenfell 

Of the four varieties of salmon in Labrador, — Salmo 
salar, Salmo trutta, Salmo immaculatus, and Salmo hudson- 
icus, — only the first two are of commercial importance. 

Salmo salar is a noble fish. In strength, beauty, and 
spirit he is certainly superior to any others in the Labrador 
waters. He is found from end to end of the coast, but less 
abundantly in the north, where he remains a shorter time 
than in the south. He arrives during the period between 
the latter part of June and the end of July ; and, after brows- 
ing about on the coast for a month or so, proceeds up the 
rivers to breed. It appears that for some time he runs in 
and out of the river mouth, as if to accustom himself to 
the change to fresh water. 

The salmon is really a river dweller, a luxurious fellow 
with a winter home in the sea, but in most countries two- 
thirds of his life is spent in the rivers. So strong a homing 
instinct does he possess, that he can hardly be kept back 
from returning to his own particular river, the place of his 
birth and the abode of his first year. This has been shown 
by marking live salmon taken at the head of a river, carrying 
them around to another river, the source of which was quite 
close to their own, but whose mouth was the opposite side of 
a great stretch of land. Three weeks later some of the 
marked fish were caught in their own pool again. In 

328 



THE SALMON-FISHERY 329 

Alaska a barrier of sand and gravel was once formed across 
the mouth of a river by a phenomenal storm. The river 
was, however, able to percolate through. When the salmon 
returned to their river, so determined were they to get up, 
they threw themselves out of the water on to the pebbly 
beach, and some at least succeeded in wriggling and jump- 
ing till they reached the other side. The natives profited 
by the experience, though the devotion of the salmon 
deserved a better fate. Only three things will apparently 
keep salmon from their own home, — pollution of the river, 
insuperable natural barriers, and man's persecutions. All 
these three are one, and that one is Death. If the summer 
is early and the water warm, well and good; they return 
to their river early. If it is late, they are content to " bide." 
If it becomes too cold after they arrive, they will return 
to the sea and go up again later. In these adventurous 
journeys the larger fish are the leaders. Obstacles are only 
things to be overcome. They will leap ten feet out of the 
water up a cataract. With successive leaps they will 
climb a fall of thirty feet. They will go on jumping till 
they are dashed to pieces and, bruised and dying, are 
borne down on the bosom of the river they loved, back to 
a tomb in the great deep out of which they came. The 
zeal of Kim and his old Lama in search of the river of the 
arrow was no greater than that of this kingly-spirited fish. 
The fact that he can no longer people our rivers is no fault 
of his. 1 

This very persistence of the salmon is his own undoing. 

1 A most interesting fact noticed about salmon by Mr. W. G. Gosling 
is the existence in certain rivers below the falls of pot-holes scooped 
out by the water in the solid rock. While watching salmon leap up 



330 LABRADOR 

I have lain on a high perpendicular rock, watching the gill- 
net stretched across the pool of clear, transparent water. 
I have seen the approach of the victim and his friends on 
the journey, the courage with which he charged the net. 
If only he would give way, he might yet go free. But he 
knows no yielding, and is not satisfied till the tough twine 
has passed over his head, caught behind his gills, and then 
it is too late to save himself. 

But we will follow the more successful fish that reach the 
home of a former year. Once in their pool, the mother fish 
finds a suitable sandy or fine gravelly spot in shallow water, 
where the ground is soft and deep, and the current not too 
boisterous. Often enough it is the nest of a sea-trout before 
her, but of that she takes little account. Throwing herself 
on her side, she scoops out a "redd," or nest, by flapping her 
tail, and in this she deposits a number of eggs. She then 
returns into deeper water, coming to and fro to her nest to 
lay more eggs for several days, till she has laid as many as 
five hundred for every pound she weighs. Each time, 
her male partner accompanies her, depositing the milt 
required to fertilize the eggs. Since they entered the river, 
they have avoided one source of danger by taking no food, 
and they subsist on the fat accumulated on the rich pastures 
outside the river. Indeed, the beautiful pink of their flesh 
depends on the crustaceans they have there devoured. 

the falls, he noticed first one and then another, that failed to clear 
the fall, totally disappear. A careful search revealed the fish head 
down and only their tails out of deep little pot-holes. He caught 
the fish for food, but was surprised to find the hole full at the bottom 
of bones of salmon that had no doubt perished miserably in the same 
way. It shows that salmon at times come head first down into the 
water when diving, like an expert human being. 



THE SALMON-FISHERY 331 

One result of their abstinence is a peculiar pinched and 
hungry look on the male fish's face. His jaws grow hard 
and hooked, and he is thus able to fight the many battles 
that lie before him, with far better chance of damaging his 
enemy. 

The " spent" salmon are called "kelts." They are so 
weakened that they fall an easy prey to any strong enemy 
they may meet. Like eels, many, if not most, salmon die 
after spawning. With scanty gratitude men have advised 
giving the poor salmon no protection at that time on the 
theory that the spent adults will, in order to recover, if 
they ever do recover, destroy in the process more young 
fish than they are worth. On the other hand, as the kelts 
are not worth eating at that time, and are thought by some 
observers to be poisonous, it is poor policy to capture them. 
A fisherman who had taken a number was once asked by a 
" protective" enthusiast, if it was not true they were not 
good to eat in that state. The fisherman replied " That's 
true," but with a wink added, " Them's not bad kippered." 

The eggs of the salmon are remarkable. They are round 
and about one-quarter inch in diameter, of a pink colour, 
elastic, so that they bounce like a ball off a board. They 
will hatch out in a month, but if it is too cold, and cir- 
cumstances are not right, like a caterpillar in a chrysalis, 
they just wait till the conditions are more to their liking. 
They can be carried in ice for thousands of miles ; stored 
in this way, they have been carried and successfully propa- 
gated in India, Australia, and New Zealand. 

The adult fish also can stand great ranges of temperature ; 
he may be caught as far south as lat. 37° north and as far 
north as lat. 70° north. The salmon so fill some rivers 



332 LABRADOR 

that when the waters subside with the advance of summer, 
the odour of rotting fish on the banks and in the branches of 
trees is said to be positively poisonous. On Kadiak Island 
in the North Pacific they are so abundant in certain rivers 
that the fish " interfere with the progress of canoes." The 
variety found in Cook's Inlet averages four feet in length, 
and weighs fifty pounds. The natives here kill in their 
primitive way some twenty-five thousand fish per year, 
which provides for each person the moderate allowance of 
four hundred and thirty pounds, or about four pounds a 
day the year round. 

Once hatched out, the little salmon, or parr, is handi- 
capped for three weeks by the large umbilical sac on which 
he subsists. He is fain, therefore, to hide away closely 
among the stones, for many creatures are fond of him. 
Insect larvae, beetles, crustaceans, large fish, rats, and even 
diving birds, are all anxious to take him in. If he survives, 
he remains in the river for one or two full years. During 
this time he has grown to a sizable fish of a couple of pounds' 
weight, but his full glory does not appear until, in his third 
spring, he assumes his glittering silver armour. He is then 
known as a "smolt," and attains the dignity of venturing 
into the unknown immensity of the ocean, with his fellows 
of his own age, as they go forth in the wake of the great 
salmon. 

In the river the samlet, or parr, is not troubled with the 
scruple of his parents, and feeds voraciously. But it is 
not until he reaches the great sea that he begins to grow 
at all rapidly. It has been said that he will grow from a 
few ounces to as many pounds in three months. He may 
return to winter a second time in the pools and lakes, a full- 



THE SALMON-FISHERY 333 

grown grilse. This pleasure is, however, generally deferred 
till the fourth spring, when the fish arrives in all the pride 
of silver and with all the well-known energy of a three- to 
six-pound grilse. Those who have felt the rush and jump 
of these exquisite creatures on the end of a light line in 
rapid water know the marvel of their agility. The males 
are at this time mature, but, as a rule, do not spawn. They 
seem simply to have a good time in the upper reaches and, 
not until the fifth year, when they have grown to the weight 
of ten pounds at least, do they feel called upon to assume 
the duties of the head of a family. 

The grilse, from their agility or smaller size, are fairly 
successful in escaping the cod-trap leaders. They even 
pass through the salmon-nets in the rivers, and the rod- 
and-line fishing for these is still excellent in many Labrador 
rivers. Eagle River still gives good sport for salmon, and 
an enterprising Hudson's Bay factor is trying to arrange 
a summer hotel for visitors near the large pools. Sandhill 
Bay River also gives good fishing. The late General Dash- 
wood came two years in succession from England to fish 
in this river. 

Many of the other rivers would doubtless afford sufficient 
attraction if only they were given a fair trial. But as yet 
little is known about them. A party in a steam-yacht, 
visiting Byron Bay in 1907, claim to have had good sport 
there, but we had no accurate details of their actual catch. 
Landlocked salmon are very common in the lakes and upper 
reaches of the Hamilton Inlet. One feature that tells most 
in favour of the rivers on the Labrador coast belonging to 
Newfoundland, is that no rivers are reserved for clubs or 
private owners, and visitors may visit or fish any or all at 



334 LABRADOR 

their own will. No fishing tackle can be obtained on the 
coast. Silver Doctors, Jock Scotts, Soldier Palmers, Dur- 
ham Rangers, and Fairies are all good flies on the Labrador 
rivers. 

Why salmon leap at a fly at all, is much debated. The 
need for food does not alone seem to explain the habit, 
which has persisted from the smolt days of their youth. 
A much greater puzzle is, Why are salmon timid to-day, 
voracious to-morrow? Why will every salmon refuse to 
look at a fly at nine o'clock, but at nine fifteen o'clock every 
salmon in the pool will leap at any fly one likes to try ? 

The salmon that return to the rivers in the winter lose 
their bright colour. The males become dark in the back, 
and have a dark red colour developed on the sides and belly. 
The females are a dark, dusty gray, somewhat resembling 
coalfish. Their flesh becomes white, and they are useless 
for eating. Early in the fifteenth century, it was a capital 
offence to kill salmon out of season. 

The Labrador salmon are said to be the best in the world 
for eating. The cold waters seem to produce a specially 
vigorous, well-fleshed fish. The salmon-fishery in Labra- 
dor preceded the cod-fishery by many years. The former 
was much the more valuable then. With salmon catch 
and fur trade the resident white population grew up and 
flourished ; with the destruction of the salmon those people 
have fallen into poverty, and even into starvation. 

In the history of the Labrador settlers we may read the 
pitiable story of the blotting out of these valuable fish. 
The increasing quantity of twine used on the outside for 
codfish offers no prospect that the salmon will assume 
their former abundance. 



THE SALMON-FISHERY 335 

As long ago as 1774, at any rate, the Alexis River, and 
soon after the Eagle and other grand rivers of Sandwich 
Bay, were completely net-barred. Of late years the " bay- 
men/' or livyeres, have been slowly obliged, owing to the 
increasing scarcity of the salmon and to the declining 
price of salt salmon in the market, to abandon this fishery 
and try for cod. 

The transition stage is a time of great misery for the poor 
settlers. Their nets, small boats, outfit, and habits are all 
calculated for the peaceful fishery in the bays; for the 
rougher fishery outside they have neither gear, education, 
or inclination. Many try to do both. But the cod arrive 
on the coast before the salmon take to the rivers, and these 
men are very apt to make a blank year, entailing great pri- 
vations on their own and other families. 

Whether man can decrease the number of cod or herring 
in the deep sea is uncertain, but that by netting rivers you 
can empty them of salmon, is a well-ascertained fact. The 
former great abundance of this fish on the Labrador is 
well emphasized in the following few extracts from the 
journals of the inimitable Major Cartwright in 1775-1785. 
In July, 1775, he writes of the Eagle River: "We have 
140 tierce (casks) ashore, but have had to take up two nets, 
as fish get in too fast." "The big pool is so full of salmon, 
you could not fire a ball into it without injuring some." 
Even the animals seemed to know the wonders of this river, 
which must have been almost as well stocked as the Fraser 
River in British Columbia. Cartwright describes "remains 
of thousands of salmon killed by white bears round the 
pool." His famous description of some fourteen white 
and black bears that he saw fishing in the pool is quite 



336 LABRADOR 

unique. In 1776, August 7 to 11, Cartwright took 1230 
salmon from the pool in one week. " At Paradise we have 
214 tierce ashore. Few escape there." In his " artless" 
poem he writes : — 

"... salmon up fresh rivers take their way, 
For them the stream is carefully beset; few fish escape." 

That is not to be wondered at, for he says, "My ten nets, 
each forty fathoms long, fastened end to end, stretch right 
across the stream." 

On July 17, 1779, 

"In Eagle River we are killing 750 salmon a day, or 
35 tierce, and we would have killed more had we had more 
nets. Three hundred and fifty tierce ashore already at 
Paradise. If I had more nets, I could have killed a 
thousand tierce alone at this post, the fish averaging from 
15 to 32 pounds apiece. At Sandhill Cove two men have 
240 tierce ashore, and would have had more, but we had no 
more salt." 

From June 23 to July 20, in Eagle River, he killed 
12,396 fish, or 300 tierce. In 1782 he writes : " Little or no 
salmon at Cartwright, only 80 tierce." In 1786 he writes: 
"We have 490 tierce in White Bear River, and Paradise 
R. and 165 tierce at Charles Hr." Naturally enough the 
archaic story of the clause in the apprentice's indentures, 
that he was "not to be forced to eat salmon more than 
thrice a week" is told of Labrador in these days. 

In 1818 Mr. Pinson was getting two hundred tierce of 
salmon at Cartwright. He received a bounty of three 
shillings per quintal for this shipment to England. 

In 1864 Mr. Stone's average catch at Henley was sixty 



THE SALMON-FISHERY 337 

tierce for a season. The entire catch, as given in the Gov- 
ernment Blue Book for 1906, was eight hundred and twenty 
tierce, valued at $16,437. The catch in 1907 was seven 
hundred and fifteen tierce, valued at $16,057. 

This catch cannot, however, represent much more than 
half the amount caught, for nearly every trap-net used in 
the cod-fishery catches salmon in its leaders, and these are 
salted, smoked, and carried to Newfoundland. I have 
known three hundred salmon taken in one day in a cod- 
trap. 

The trap leaders specially used for salmon are set out 
from points exactly as cod-trap leaders are, and being four 
inches instead of six inches in mesh, stop much smaller 
fish. In this way a very large number of small salmon 
are taken every year, and in the opinion of many people, 
the traps do more damage to the salmon than the river nets. 

Rivers in Labrador are, as a rule, not now barred, but 
practically all that are of any value are illegally netted. 
It seems that a prescriptive right has grown up with some 
residents to fish rivers in defiance of the law, and the only 
one on which a fish warden is appointed is regularly netted 
at least three miles above its mouth. If, however, these 
rivers received the protection the laws of the country nomi- 
nally afford them, there is no reason why they should not 
again become as attractive to visitors and sportsmen as 
those of the Canadian Labrador. 

The regular method used to catch salmon in Labrador 
is to set the gill-net from the land. These nets are fastened 
by a mooring to a "shore fast" and run straight off to sea. 
The salmon seldom swim more than a few feet below the 
surface, so the nets are fastened to a line of corks on a 



338 LABRADOR 

" head rope," and hang down perpendicularly. The legal 
mesh is not less than six inches in diagonal measure. At 
the outer end, the line of nets, called a " fleet, " is held by 
heavy anchors, and then a pound is formed by turning 
back with another net at an angle of forty-five degrees in 
the direction from which the salmon are expected to strike. 
At times yet another net is added, so that the triangular 
pound is closed, leaving merely a door. The salmon do 
not strike a net in daytime so readily as do sea-trout. 
They seem, however, to get confused in the pound, and in 
this most are taken. 

The Hudson's Bay Company, who are by far the largest 
salmon buyers on the coast, own many nets. They also 
own houses, or " posts," as they are called, at all the best 
points of land in the long inlets, and the planters use these 
and turn in half their fish as rent. For the balance they 
get goods from the company's store. 

Most of the salmon catchers are fur trappers, although 
those who live on the outside land do little or no " furring." 
Indeed, many have fallen into poverty and have neither 
traps, safe guns, ammunition, nor even clothing and food 
to enable them to get out and face the Arctic cold of winter. 
This is now the poorest class of men in Labrador. 

Formerly the Hudson's Bay Company had a large salmon 
cannery in Eagle River. The building is still standing, but 
the trade has been abandoned for want of sufficient fish 
to maintain a scale of business large enough to enable them 
to compete with British Columbia and other places. The 
salmon industry is generally in a bad way, as the price of the 
salted article has steadily declined, till this year instead of 
$6 and even $8, only $3 a hundredweight was paid. The 



THE SALMON-FISHERY 339 

Hudson's Bay Company gave far the highest prices on 
the coast these last two years. Were it not for them, the 
fishery would be practically abandoned. 

Last year, 1908, a new method was tried. Mr. E. Gibb 
of Aberdeen, Scotland, brought over a large tank 
steamer, in which to carry home to England live fish. He 
fished in a way new to Labrador, pursuing the fish with 
a floating trap-net. This enterprise failed owing to the 
inability to keep the fish alive. 

In 1920 Mr. John Clouston of St. John's established 
the first cold storage plant for salmon at Packs Harbour, 
Labrador. He shipped altogether to London in 1921 
nearly 9 million pounds of frozen salmon, and hopes to 
send 2 million pounds in 1922. He was also able to send 
salmon in ice to St. John's for freezing and reshipment, 
owing to our cool climate. A new method of sending 
salmon covered with a thin layer of ice by being dipped 
in water, and frozen at once rapidly promises even better 
results. This year our people received twice the amount 
for salmon from the net, that previously they got for it 
split and salted. This is likely to be increased next year 
by more plants being erected. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE HERRING AND OTHER FISH 
By W. T. Grenfell 

The immense value of the herring to the world has been 
known for centuries. One thousand years ago our ances- 
tors in England knew its virtues.' To-day it is of no less, 
but rather of greater, importance. With the increasing 
population of the earth's surface, with the ever growing 
need for food-supplies, we can ill afford to neglect any pre- 
caution that might tend to the development and main- 
tenance of so immensely valuable an industry as that of 
catching herring. In this Labrador once had its share. 
Alas, to-day the glory of the Labrador herring-fishery has 
departed, and only a few paltry barrels find their way to 
the markets. 

So important has this industry been, that Professor Hux- 
ley calculated that at least three billion herrings were, in an 
average year, killed for food of man in the North Sea and 
the open Atlantic. As these herring average eight ounces 
at a minimum, the immense weight of food, one billion five 
hundred million pounds, speaks for itself of its importance 
to the human race. For herring is a fat fish. Lying 
in Lerwick Harbour, among nine hundred herring boats, 
I have seen the oil set free in the splitting of captured her- 
ring cover the surface of that immense harbour so thickly 
that, though the vessels would be sailing in and out with a 
stiff breeze, not a ripple of any sort would be visible. It left 

340 



THE HERRING AND OTHER FISH 341 

a most marked impression on the mind. One of those fat 
herring, taken straight from the water, then split and grilled 
on a gridiron over an open fire, will actually catch fire from 
his own fat. 

But in Labrador our herring have won a well-earned 
reputation for being facile princeps among the world's her- 
ring; only those from the Icelandic and Shetland waters 
can compare with them. The Labrador fish run to seven- 
teen, or even more inches in length and weigh nearly one 
pound apiece. 

Kings and queens have worshipped at the shrine of the 
herring. William Berkelzon of Flanders, in about 1300, 
discovered how to cure red herring, and generally how to 
preserve them better for food. After his death, Charles 
the Fifth erected a monument to his memory, visited his 
grave, and there prayed for his soul. Mary of Hungary, 
in a somewhat appropriate way, paid tribute to our bene- 
factor by sitting on his tomb and eating a red herring. In 
North Scotland there is an old saying, "No herrings, no 
weddings." The "common" herring is not taken in the 
Pacific or Mediterranean, but, nevertheless, has a great 
range, — from Cape Hatteras to Spitzbergen and the White 
Sea. 

The one failing of the herring, and the one thing that still 
keeps hope up that he may return to Labrador, is his incon- 
stancy. He seems to disappear according to some subtle 
law of nature which has baffled all the skill of scientists, 
and has eluded all the speculations of fishermen. History 
records that European herring were to be found in vast 
quantities in the year 1020 a.d., and during the following 
periods: the twelfth century, 1260-1341, the fifteenth 



342 LABRADOR 

century, 1550-1590, 1660-1680, 1747-1808, 1857-1878, 
and also of recent years. Such large quantities have been 
taken in the North Sea these past two years that all previous 
records have been eclipsed. They disappeared from the 
Norwegian coast from 1655-1699, and again from 1784- 
1808. In 1871 they almost entirely disappeared again. 

The old theory that all the herring lived in one vast race 
in the polar seas and made a circular tour of the waters they 
are found in, was eloquently described by Buffon, but is 
now abandoned. There is little doubt that many separate 
shoals exist, and that they do not retire into ocean abysses, 
or mid-ocean, where they cannot be taken. When they 
leave the shore, they probably feed on the slopes in moderate 
depths near the coast they frequent. They have been 
captured in one hundred fathoms of water off the New- 
foundland coast. They are easily affected by temperature, 
preferring a temperature of 55° F. But they are caught in 
water as cold as 37° F., and the Scottish fishery is mostly in 
water at 41-42° F. 

•The eggs (thirty-one thousand, on the average, to each 
fish) which sink and stick to the bottom are eaten in vast 
quantities by many species of animals in the waters. It 
is, obviously, of great importance that the egg stage should 
be as brief as possible. Nature seems to furnish the in- 
stinct, therefore, to seek water at 55° F., the optimum 
temperature for rapid hatching. In any case it is probable 
that in the Labrador polar current which carries the tem- 
perature of 30° F. in subsurface layers, the herring is not 
likely to breed at all. This view coincides with the actual 
observations that herring do not spawn north of the Mag- 
dalene Islands and the west coast of Newfoundland. 



THE HERRING AND OTHER FISH 34S 

It is impossible to believe that man has had any hand 
whatever in driving herring from the Labrador. The her- 
ring-fishery on this coast has, at best, been on a very small 
scale. Professor Huxley states that even in the North Sea 
man cannot be responsible for as much as five per cent of 
the herring killed. From the time of the egg to the full- 
grown fish this huge family of the herring is preyed upon by 
larva, crustacean, and sea- worm. " All that men take would 
not compromise one school of twelve square miles area, 
and there must be scores of such in the North Sea." If 
every herring lays thirty-one thousand fertilized eggs, and 
all but two of the family are killed every year by their 
enemies, the herring would still maintain their vast num- 
bers. "Man," says Professor Huxley, "is only one of a 
great cooperative society of herring catchers, and the larger 
share he takes, the less there is for the rest of the company." 

The herring seems specially adapted for man's use. Like 
the cod, he has no poisonous nor pain-wreaking spines ; he 
herds together so as to be caught quickly in vast quantities ; 
and he can be easily preserved. He is a deep-sea fish, and 
is thus not dependent on refuse food in shallow water. 
Young herring fetch a high price as "white bait." "A 
large proportion," says Professor Goode, "pass under the 
name of ' French sardine.'' Some are canned in spices 
and sold under the sti'l more imaginative name of "brook 
trout." If, however, they have been feeding on crustaceans 
with hard shells, these, being undigested, putrefy very rapidly 
and spoil the herring. Herring barred inside a seine are, 
therefore, as a rule, safer to cure if left for tw T o or three days 
in the net while digestion is finished. 

Though the herring have small teeth on their tongues 



§44 LABRADOR 

and the roofs of their mouths, they feed by sieving the water 
through gill-rakers armed with teeth and fine spines, which 
catch the small copepods, etc., and gently guide them down 
their throats. 

They spawn in spring and autumn, but the same herring 
only spawns once a year, and they do not spawn till eighteen 
months old. The danger to the herring increases immensely 
when they come into the shallower waters for this or any 
purpose. It seems, therefore, another provision of nature 
that they should be a swift-swimming fish and, after spawn- 
ing, leave rapidly for deep water. 

Dr. Moses Harvey, the historian, writing in 1880, says 
the average export of herring from Labrador was 50,000 to 
70,000 barrels for the years immediately preceding. In 
1880, 20,000 barrels were exported; in 1881, 33,330 barrels; 
in 1908, only 180 barrels. As many as 500 barrels have 
been taken in one haul at Snug Harbour. Captain Hennesy 
described to me how, thirty years ago, he sailed through 
millions of herring north of Cape Mugford ; their vast bulk 
made the surface of the sea oily. 

There are many superstitions about herring, and the 
reasons advanced for their not ''coming in" have been of 
every conceivable kind. To change this luck, some amusing 
ceremonial " charms" have been invented, such as dressing 
a fisherman in a striped shirt and riding him around the 
town in a wheelbarrow. Another valuable recipe was to 
pick out herring with red fins without letting them touch 
wood, and then pass them round and round the scudding 
pole as many times as the number of lasts of herring you 
hoped to capture next autumn. A " last " means 1320 her- 
rings. Less amusing was the burning alive, two centuries 



THE HEBBING AND OTHEB FISH 345 

ago, of men and women supposed to be bringing evil luck 
in the fishery. Laws have existed in England forbidding 
the taking of herring between sunrise and sunset, under the 
idea that the nets turned the fish. An Irish law forbade 
nets to be out between sundown on Saturday and sunrise 
on Monday. Probably the best laws, however, arenolaws 
at all, until more definite knowledge is possessed as to the 
real causes of the movement of the herring. 

A great deal of the value of the cured article depends 
upon the methods of cure, and much skill is needed to be 
really successful. In Europe the fish is pickled round, not 
being split at all; in America they are split and cured; in 
Holland the belly is clipped off with scissors. The variety 
of barrel is also important. The wood once used with us 
was hard, clear spruce. But the Labrador barrel industry 
has died with the departure of the herring. For more 
reasons than one many have been left sorrowing. But 
1921 showed good promise of herring returning to the Lab- 
rador coast, and in spite of the tariff in the U. S. prophets 
are now foretelling the reestablishment of that industry. 

Mackerel are not taken in Labrador, except occasion- 
ally on the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The 
range of this fish is from Belle Isle Strait to Cape Hat- 
teras. The lack of variety of round fish on the Labrador 
is compensated only by the abundance and quality of 
the cod and salmon. 

None of the marketable flatfish of Europe and America 
frequents our waters. Absent is the succulent sole, the de- 
lectable plaice, the toothsome turbot and brill. The witch 
sole, deep-water denizen though he is, pays us no visits. 
Of all these prime fish, only a stray halibut wandering 
in from the enormous schools that frequent the great 



346 LABBADOB 

banks one hundred and fifty miles from our shores, pays 
tribute to our Vikings of Peace, the acknowledged masters 
of the mighty Atlantic, even among the rocks of Labrador. 

His name, halibut, probably means "holy plaice," — 
" holy " because a favourite food on holy days. He is often 
found in water as deep as two hundred and fifty fathoms. 
He prefers to live in water approaching the temperature 
of 32° F., or that where fresh water would freeze, and he 
ranges from the fortieth parallel of north latitude to the 
Arctic Ocean. The larger specimens attain lengths of eight 
or nine feet and weights of four hundred pounds; some- 
times these giants have lived to so great age that large 
barnacles may be found growing on the skin, much as bar- 
nacles grown on an old whale. It takes a hand winch to 
haul up a big fish, and four or five men to get him over the 
side. Where only two men operate the dory, the usual 
plan is to list the gunwale over level with the water and 
then rush the fish and water in together. The halibut 
has sometimes had his revenge by capsizing the little craft. 
On one occasion a Gloucester vessel had brought a sick man of 
their crew to our hospital, and, wishing to express gratitude, 
offered us a fresh halibut. We gladly accepted, the change 
of diet being very welcome. We were a little surprised, 
however, to see later four stalwart men coming up the 
platform with a fish swung on poles — the fish the size 
of a porpoise ! The fish smokes most excellently, the pieces 
then much resembling good Wiltshire hams in appearance. 

Halibut are eminently fitted to survive. They are very 
swift and powerful, have large mouths with fearful, sharp 
teeth. They have a most catholic appetite that readily 
embraces a few dozen younger brothers or sisters if these get 



THE HERRING AND OTHER FISH 347 

in the way. Half a barrel of flatfish was taken out of the 
stomach of a single halibut. 

This fish, though commanding good prices, does not form 
a Labrador export, the banking fishery being carried on by 
our American cousins. These come to us as early as April, 
sail round the south end of the ice-floe, and so reach the 
banks; or, if leaving in February, make straight for the 
south coast of Greenland and try to get north by keeping 
outside the two currents of drifting coast-ice. On one 
occasion the skipper of a Boston vessel came to a hospital 
before our harbour ice had all gone, and we gave him a 
drive round on the ice with our dog-sleigh, as he had never 
seen dogs travelling. The main impression on his mind 
seemed to be "To think we had ripe strawberries before I 
left home a fortnight ago !" 

In Europe and America the dab (Hippoglossoides 
limandoides) flourishes in both cold and warm waters. 
In his youth he is a free-swimming, upright fish, but takes 
to tying on one side on the bottom. He shows his adapt- 
ability by causing the under eye to travel round over his 
nose, as this eye would be useless looking down on the 
ground. He has fine, shiny scales. In Dublin he is called 
the smeareen, and is much eaten by the poorer classes. 
On the New England coast he passes as the "mud dab," 
but on his arrival in New York he further shows his adapt- 
ability by assuming the name of the "American sole." 
In Labrador he is classed with the "offal" and contempt- 
uously thrown away. The dogs, however, appreciate his 
qualities better, and one often in the spring sees a dog 
wading about looking or feeling for the dab in the mud, 
and then quickly diving down and bringing the struggling, 



348 LABRADOR 

squirming fish ashore, there to be swallowed alive. The 
dab's hope of safety lies in escaping notice, and this he does 
whenever he is at rest. He flaps about till he settles in the 
mud; the mud which he has stirred up falls again, and 
covers all but his eyes and nose. At largest, the fish 
reaches twenty inches in length, and weighs up to two 
pounds. He remains all winter. As he is the first fish to 
be taken when our ice goes, he is speared by the boys, and, 
when food is short, cooked and eaten. But herring so soon 
follow the departure of the ice that even in this season the 
dab is seldom used. Visitors, however, esteem him highly 
whenever the native cook will condescend to prepare him 
for table. Probably it is the ugly face with huddled-up eyes 
and distorted mouth that tells here against his popularity. 

The cause of his ugliness is explained elsewhere by a 
strange legend. It is said that when the fish were sum- 
moned to settle who should be king, the plaice was late, 
delaying to paint on some of his beautiful red spots. When 
he heard the election was already over, his mouth so twisted 
in disdain it never came straight again. A still older legend 
accounts for his being coloured only on one side. It runs 
that Moses, having caught one, proceeded to cook it over 
an oil lamp, but when one side was broiled and grilled, 
threw the fish into the sea. 

The winter fluke (Pseudo-pleuronectes Americanus), the 
cousin of the dab, closely resembles him in size and ap- 
pearance, and is found here, as he is all along the North 
America coast, south to Cape Cod. 

The lump-fish (Cyclopterus lumpus) is very common with 
us, but is practically useless. We have been too stupid 
to find a use for him, except as a fertilizer. He has de- 



THE HERRING AND OTHER FISH 349 

veloped a sucker on his belly, with which, being a lazy fish, 
he fastens himself upside down on any moving thing, and 
will then drift about without the trouble of swimming. 

The common sculpin, or scavenger, exists all along the 
coast. There are two varieties, Cottus scorpioides and C. 
Groenlandicus. He really consists of a large mouth, an 
indefinitely distensible belly, a voracious and omnivorous 
appetite, and an outside coat of sharp spikes. One can 
scarcely credit him with feelings, for when fishing with the 
sharp jigger for cod, the same sculpin will run for the hook 
again and again, though the barb may in the earlier capture 
have been in almost any part of the anatomy. Sometimes 
a fisherman has had to oblige him by leaving him on deck 
in order to avoid the worry of repeatedly hauling in the line 
with the useless fish adhering. Our dogs, however, make 
nothing of his horny and thorny exterior, and eat him with 
great gusto, always commencing by biting off his tail. 
At a pinch, the sculpin would be very useful in sustaining 
human life. 

Another fish that stands by us all the winter is the rock 
cod. He is much like a small cod in appearance, but darker, 
with partly iridescent sides. He remains about the har- 
bours. As a matter of fact, he is "not at all bad eat- 
ing," but is considered by the fishermen very inferior to the 
true cod, and is always rejected from those they export. 
He is, however, dried up with the smaller cod, which are 
not split, but simply salt-sprinkled. They are kept for 
winter use under the name of " rounders." He is also 
taken through the ice in winter, and has frequently shared 
with the lowly clam and mussel the honour of preserving 
the life of those in one of these scattered communities. 



350 LABRADOR 

Hake or haddock are rarely seen in Labrador. The former 
fish is easily distinguishable by his silvery armoured coat, 
and the latter by the black marks on his shoulders, irrev- 
erently attributed to the fingers of St. Peter, who is said 
to have pulled him out of the water to pay taxes, with the 
money in the fish's mouth. Why the spots are black, 
tradition does not say. 

It seems. to surprise most people that the shark is found 
in Labrador, as he is always associated with tropical waters. 
The variety we have is the sleeper, Somniosus microcepha- 
lus, the little-headed, sleepy shark. He has a large body 
up to fifteen feet long, and fully lives up to his name. He 
feeds on offal thrown overside, earning the name of gurry 
shark; he is the most despised of our ocean fauna. He 
frequently gets caught in the sunken nets for seals, though 
not nearly as often as he deserves, for he browses along the 
nets, eating out the seals. In most cases his energy is not 
sufficient to make him push into the net. A ten-foot shark 
has a mouth contour of two feet, and a gullet proportional. 
It is said that he eats live whales, biting huge pieces out 
of the abdominal blubber ; but I cannot believe him smart 
enough to do this. So sharp are his teeth that he will sculp 
all the fat and skin off a dead seal, without taking two bites 
at one piece. I have taken from his stomach nearly every 
bit of a seal's skin and fat in one long string the width of the 
shark's mouth, almost as one takes off the peel from an 
orange or an apple. On one occasion we found in a shark 
the carcass of a red dog, which we had left on a pan of ice 
to drift out to sea a week previously. The sleeper shark 
seems to have little capacity for pain. Captain At wood 
reports that after driving a scythe right through one's 



THE HERRING AND OTHER FISH 351 

stomach, it came placidly back and went on feeding off 
the same dead whale in the same place. In large numbers 
these sharks haunt the ice-fields, where the sealers have 
left the mutilated carcasses of the young seals. I have 
driven a boat-hook into one bigger than myself, as it lay 
basking on the surface of the water, and hauled it easily 
out on the ice without its making any notable resistance. 
On one occasion, with the help of a couple of men, I hauled 
out five from one hole through the ice in this same way. 

The only commercially important part of the sleeper is 
the liver, which yields fifteen to thirty gallons of very ex- 
cellent oil; for the purpose of securing this oil a shark- 
fishery grew up on the coasts of Norway and Iceland. Our 
fishermen sometimes use a lump of its skin-covered flesh 
for scrubbing the floor. The flesh is white and nauseous, 
and even our dogs, voracious as they are, will scarcely eat 
it. This shark seems quite indifferent to man's presence, 
and is not a man-eater. It is almost impossible to conceive 
that the shark's stomach should still, by some races of hu- 
man beings, be considered the gate of heaven; and that 
living children be offered by mothers to its rapacity that 
the children may enter paradise through that probably 
most repulsive of all forms of death. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE OCEAN MAMMALS 
By W. T. Grenfell 

To compensate the Labradormen in some small degree for 
the loss of herring and the depreciation of salmon, a whale- 
fishery has sprung up. The great success made in killing 
sulphur-bottom, finback, and humpback whales, in North 
Newfoundland, led to a hope of great things from them for 
Labrador. But the numbers killed have been very limited. 1 
The whales themselves are, however, so intensely interesting, 
it is worth while referring to the various sorts one is liable 
to see in Labrador. 

The whale is, of course, really a land animal, but he has 
left his native element, and taken to a roving, nautical life. 
Now his legs are not necessary for locomotion ; hence they 
have become rudimentary and are enclosed in his thick, 
rubbery, oily skin. The arms are not used in swimming, 
but simply for preserving the animal's balance or for 
grasping the baby whale when it is in danger. 

Of all the adaptations of these strange beasts to their 
environment, perhaps none is more remarkable than the 
arrangement for hearing. The whale has no need of the 
sense of smell, but he does need to hear the approach of an 

1 In reading the records of the Moravian Missions for the years 
1780 to 1850, one is greatly struck by the number of dead whales men- 
tioned as having been discovered, from time to time, on the coast. 

352 



THE OCEAN MAMMALS 353 

enemy. Because of the enormous pressures which must 
be endured by the animal, the external opening of the ear 
is reduced to the diameter of a crow-quill, whereas the 
opening of the ear into the nose — the Eustachian tube — 
is very large. Deafness, following the closing of this tube 
by adenoid growths in children, has made most of us know 
of the existence of this second " ear-hole." The whale 
actually hears through his nose, in a way similar to that 
by which a person listens " open-mouthed." The eyes are 
very small ; this is not a disadvantage, fixed as the eyes are 
in such positions that the animal can see well neither ahead 
nor astern. Sight can hardly be much used as a feeding 
sense; think of looking for your food when you have to 
catch millions of tiny creatures, like copepods, to satisfy 
your appetite ! It has been said that a whale brought to 
land does not die of asphyxiation, for he can breathe an 
hour or two at least ; that, on the other hand, he does die 
of starvation. He must eat incessantly or die. 

On a fine morning on the Labrador coast, I have counted 
a dozen whales in a single school. Now and again a huge 
tail would emerge from the water and lash the surface 
with its full breadth, making a sound like the firing of a 
cannon, while the silence of the stillness was otherwise 
broken only by the noise of their blowing, as they rolled 
lazily along on the surface. I have seen the thresher whales 
making their huge prey hurl his whole immense body clear 
out of the water, only to fall back with the splash of a 
waterfall, and the noise of a thunderclap, to be stabbed by 
the swordfish below, or eaten alive by the fearful jaws of 
his enemy. 

In order to remain below water so long as. they do (a 

2a 



354 LABRADOR 

full-grown male can stay down one hour), whales have 
a huge reservoir of blood in vessels situated in the front of 
the chest, like the pipes of a water-cooler. This blood 
he overoxygenates by repeated spoutings. A whaler can 
tell by the number of blows exactly how long the ani- 
mal will remain below on his sounding. To aerate the 
blood thoroughly, a male sperm whale blows about sixty 
times, once every ten seconds. The females blow for about 
four minutes, and do not remain down so long as the males. 
The elastic, compressible skin is equally compressed by the 
water at great depths; in a marvellous manner the vital 
organs are relieved of dangerous pressure, while an auto- 
matic water-bag valve fills and closes the nostrils so that 
no water is forced in. 

Six species frequent the Labrador coast, though only 
four kinds are still common, — the finback, humpback, 
sulphur-bottom, and white whale. A specimen of the 
largest, the sulphur-bottom, so called from the colour of 
his body, has been taken with a length of ninety-five feet 
and a circumference of thirty-nine feet. The weight of this 
animal was estimated to be two hundred and ninety-four 
thousand pounds. Think of the awful power of the tail 
that can not only propel this mass at fifteen knots an hour, 
but can actually hurl it clean out of water into the air! 

In this animal the baleen, or whalebone, hanging from 
the roof of his mouth, weighed eight hundred pounds and 
reached four feet in length, or somewhat less than half 
the length of the "bone" in an adult right whale. There 
were no fewer than three hundred plates on each side. 
He gave one hundred and ten barrels of oil. So large is the 
mouth of a sulphur-bottom that a boat can row into it. 



THE OCEAN MAMMALS 355 

The jaw-bone may be sixteen to eighteen feet long. It took 
four of us a whole afternoon, with axes and swords mounted 
on pike handles, to cut out one bone and carry it to our 
steamer. One had to walk almost in the footsteps of Jonah 
to get at the articulation, so far back is it in the body. 
Yet the gullet of this whale, where full-grown, is only a few 
inches in diameter. In reality, his mouth is a vast trap 
for food, the more of which is caught the larger the mouth is 
developed. Their food is very simple, being almost entirely 
small crustaceans of the shrimp variety which they sieve 
out of the deep water as they swim along. Occasionally 
they swallow a caplin or herring, which gets in the way. 
No whale is ever killed in a starved condition, not even a 
blind one, of which several have been captured. 

The finback is the commonest whale on the coast. He 
runs only to about sixty-five feet in length, and in proportion 
gives less oil than the sulphur-bottom. The humpback is, 
at times, scarcely worth catching, giving very little oil. 
He may be seventy to seventy-five feet long, and has bone 
up to three feet in length. When freshly killed, the young 
humpback affords excellent food for man. Indeed, were 
it not for the prejudice against them, these "mountains of 
meat" would be considered a most desirable food-supply. 
A few of us on the coast have used it, fresh, salted, and 
tinned. It is too hard in salt, but, tinned, is really good 
meat, with not enough characteristic qualities for the or- 
dinary man to tell it from tinned beef. The tinning, as an 
industry, seems to be abandoned, but in a country where 
vegetables are absent, cattle impossible, and our wild meat 
supplies diminishing with the years, the immense amount 
of nourishing material would seem a most desirable ad- 



356 LABRADOR 

junct to the diet of all. The poor people especially welcome 
this meat, for it is scarcely more expensive than the can it 
is put into. Preserved frozen for winter, whalefish would 
help to prevent the scurvy, which often affects the people 
in spring after the long winter of isolation. 

The white whale is a slender, graceful animal about 
twenty feet long. His skin forms excellent leather, called 
" porpoise hide"; it is very impervious to water. The 
adult is as big as two dozen calves. He weighs about 
twenty-five hundred pounds, and gives one hundred gallons 
of oil. These whales were very common in the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, and are still found there. They play in schools, 
jumping out of the water, enjoying life much like porpoises. 
They have been caught in cod-trap nets, getting tangled 
up in the twine, and in 1907 some sixty were caught in the 
big seal-nets set at Cape Chidley by the Moravian mis- 
sionaries. They are voracious beasts, eating alive almost 
every kind of fish in the sea. They even kill and eat our 
seals. But the white whale is paid back in his own coin by 
the much more powerful threshers, who are very partial 
to his flesh. 

The thresher, or killer whale (Orca gladiator), is himself 
only twenty feet in length, but he is the fiercest of all our 
sea animals, and is a perfect buccaneer and pirate. He has 
a back fin about six feet long which reveals his presence as 
he swims along near the surface. With it he is said by 
some to beat his prey. Many are the battles that have been 
described between this beast and his larger kindred. 
Captain Atwood tells of three attacking an enormous cow 
sperm whale and her huge offspring in shallow water. They 
killed the calf and drove off the mother, badly wounded, 
after which they came back and ate the baby. 



THE OCEAN MAMMALS 357 

The grampus, thirty feet long, and the porpoises, or 
herring hogs (eight to ten feet long), are allowed to pursue 
their way untroubled by the fishermen. Both animals 
have large teeth, and consume large quantities of fish. The 
teeth interlock so that their slippery, scaly prey cannot 
escape. The fish often run into nets and shallows to escape 
them. Porpoise and grampus are not only hard to catch, 
but are of very little value when taken. Like all the larger 
whales, they are mammals, and suckle their young swimming 
along on their side. The nipple is retractile, and may be 
drawn back into a slit or fold in the breast, so that it is 
scarcely visible as the animal lies on deck. Having shot 
a suckling mother on one occasion, we tried the milk. It 
was very rich, and had a somewhat fishy taste. Porpoise 
meat is exceedingly good for eating. 

The sperm whale, or cachalot, is not now a denizen of our 
coast, where, however, he makes occasional visits. In 
1892 a monster, some eighty feet long, ran into the rocks 
near Battle Harbour, and, I presume, finding them hard as 
his own adamantine skull, got somewhat confused; for 
he continued to battle with the rocks till he stranded and 
perished. He was towed into the harbour and flensed in 
an amateur way. The head was one-third as long as his 
body. The head contained two large tanks, called the case, 
and out of this the oil was pumped. One hundred and forty 
gallons were taken. The oil helps to float the huge jaw- 
bones. The lower jaw had fifty large, conical teeth of 
solid ivory, several inches apart. The teeth of the cachalot 
were at one time almost venerated in Fiji and other sea 
islands, and disastrous wars and many murders have re- 
sulted from disputes as to their possession. The food of 



358 LABRADOR 

the sperm is fish, and any flesh it can catch, especially 
large cephalopods. It is said that out of the stomach of 
one cachalot, thirteen porpoises and fourteen seals were 
cut. Since this date several more sperm whales have 
been killed on our coast. 

The usual food of the whale is the octopus, or giant 
squid, which flourishes in deep water off the Labrador. 
An octopus arm no less than twenty-seven feet long was 
reported as taken from the mouth of a captured cachalot. 
Even the white whale falls victim to this most masterful 
animal in the sea. The sperm whales travel in schools, the 
boys and girls in separate companies, and each in charge 
of one or two old folk. The big bulls maintain an absolute 
proprietary right to !he harem until deposed by some 
able and aspiring youngster. 

The narwhale, like all the others, is retiring steadily 
before the advent of the white man, and is now seldom 
taken on our shores, though in the north it is still occa- 
sionally killed. Its front left canine tooth grows directly 
forward out of its mouth, and is twisted round and round 
itself or its fellow-tooth, in a solid ivory tusk ten feet long. 

There are now two whale factories in Labrador. One 
at L'Anse au Loup was closed for want of whales. One 
situated at Cape Charles has been running for four years. 
Another at Hawke's Harbour, forty miles to the north of 
the Strait of Belle Isle, has run for two years, and kills 
most fish. The whales apparently come from the north- 
ward during the season. Both of these whaling stations 
are now (1921) temporarily closed up. 

Hunting whales is certainly a most exciting industry; 
and I can imagine no more thrilling moment than when the 



THE OCEAN MAMMALS 359 

big fish rises for the last time right under the bow, and the 
harpooner makes his shot. The small, fast steamers, with 
the harpoon gun mounted on a swivel on the fore poop 
deck, are still handled by Norwegians trained to the work. 
In rough and fine weather one sees them darting here and 
there and everywhere. The first puzzle to the visitor is 
as to how these tiny craft ever managed to steam across 
the great Atlantic. Two at least have been lost, — one on 
a reef ; one disappeared on the passage. They steam about 
fifteen knots per hour, which is far faster than any whale 
swims, unless he is badly frightened. As the monster, 
which is as large as the steamer, blows alongside, and 
one holds one's breath involuntarily, the harpooner quite 
silently indicates with one hand to the helmsman which 
way to put the helm, keeping his other hand on the gun- 
stock. Then there is a commotion right ahead, a sensation 
as if the vessel were running to destruction on a huge rock, 
a bang, and then, — nothing but the whirr of the line 
as it flies out through the pulleys. It is indeed a trying 
time. Either there is $1500 on the end of the line or, 
perhaps, another tedious and fruitless search for days or 
weeks. No wonder that on one occasion when I witnessed 
what scarcely ever happens, a real old expert harpooner 
make a clean miss, his language burst as if from a safety- 
valve, and was " frequent and painful and free." By a 
careful and merciful arrangement, when the harpoon goes 
home, the start of the whale pulls a trigger which is one of 
the flukes of the barbed iron. This fires an explosive charge 
in the fish, and will more often than not kill him immediately. 
If, however, the harpoon strikes him in the tail, or again, 
if it goes through a thin portion and does not explode, there 



360 LABRADOR 

is likely to be trouble. With the powerful engine going 
full speed astern, the whale will tow the steamer ahead, 
they say, at several knots an hour. It seems never to 
face the enemy voluntarily ; and though one, after sounding, 
came up through the engine-room floor and sank the vessel, 
it probably did so by chance in its dying agony or " flurry." 
A sunken whale can only be raised by steam power, and 
once it is dead, it will otherwise remain down till putre- 
faction sets in. Then after eight or nine days the retained 
gases bring it to the surface. In Iceland where the fishery, 
after fifty years' prosecution, has destroyed the supply of 
inshore whales, a sunk whale is sometimes buoyed and left 
for another steamer to haul home. But the smell is then 
so dreadful, and the oil so brown and so inferior in value, 
that this delay in cutting up is avoided as often as possible. 
Here on the Labrador the dying whale is hauled alongside 
and given the coup de grace with a long lance, or possibly 
a second bomb may be fired into him. A long, hollow rod 
is then driven in, a force-pump is attached, and the great 
leviathan is inflated like a foot-ball. His tail is now triced 
up to the rigging, the flukes, as a rule, being cut off for 
convenience. Thus he is carried in triumph home to the 
factory, or anchored off while another victim is sought for. 
Till late years the carcass was a waste product and was 
allowed to float away or rot in the neighbouring coves. 
There it fouled the air and water and made the very rocks 
greasy and offensive. Now with the excellent machinery 
the meat is cut up and treated with heat and acid. Almost 
one-third as much good oil is thus extracted as is pumped 
from the "case" in the head. The flesh is then passed 
along from the vats to be dry heated with the crushed 



THE OCEAN MAMMALS 361 

bones, and converted into a valuable fertilizer, which is 
put into sacks for exportation. Little or nothing of the 
carcass is wasted; the blood itself goes into fertilizer. 

Even during the few years the industry has been prose- 
cuted, it would seem as if the whales had decreased in 
number. 

In 1904 two companies fished and killed 153 whales, 
valued at $73,440. 

In 1905 three companies fished and killed 149 whales, 
valued at $42,318. 

In 1906 two companies fished and killed 85 whales. 

In 1907 two companies fished and killed 94 whales. 

Of the 149 whales killed in 1905 there were five sulphur- 
bottoms, 101 finbacks, 43 humpbacks. A fall in the price 
of oil and the inferior quality of the catch accounted for 
the great drop in value from the previous year. 

If codfish and salmon are essential to the white inhabitants, 
seals and walrus are none the less the mainstay of the 
aboriginal coast dwellers — the Eskimo. Alas for these 
people, the increasingly vigorous prosecution of the seal- 
fishery from Newfoundland with larger and larger steamers 
has already begun to tell on the numbers of the seals, and 
especially on the commonest and most valued, the harp 
seal (Phoca Grcenlandica) . The Eskimo of Labrador are 
slowly being driven back and dying out before the tide of 
white population, and there can be no question that im- 
proved rifles, improved seal-nets, and the steam sealers 
have been potent factors in their downfall. 1 No one 

1 Fortunately one of the Eskimo's favourite seals, the "netsek," 
does not come south at all, but whelps in holes excavated by it in the 
solid body of the great ice pans. 



362 LABRADOR 

more clearly recognizes this or more deeply deplores it 
than one of the best authorities, Dr. Fridjof Nansen. The 
hood-seal fishery of East Greenland, once a great in- 
dustry, has long ago ceased to exist. It began in 1761, 
and by 1884 it was already failing, yet only one million 
seals had been killed. Every year the white communities 
in Labrador are finding it less worth while to prosecute the 
seal-fishery. And now the land being also denuded of its 
once plentiful game, many settlements have disappeared. 
In 1795 it was considered a poor seal year when eleven hun- 
dred were killed at Battle Harbour ; one hundred and fifty 
seals would be a good year's catch there now. Professor 
Hornaday of New York declares that " every large terres- 
trial mammal species is being killed off faster than it 
breeds." The same may be said of most of the aquatic 
mammals. 

I am safe in saying that along the whole coast of Labrador 
not more than fifty walrus are now killed in the year. One 
was killed near Cape Mekattina in the Gulf, last year (1908) . 
I have not heard of any other having been seen in the Gulf 
during the sixteen years I have known it. Most are killed 
by the Eskimo at Okkak, Hebron, and Ramah. They are 
more numerous around Cape Chidley, but there are fewer 
people there to kill them. Great herds were said to have 
once existed on the Magdalene Islands. In 1641 a vessel 
hunting as far south as Sable Island secured as many as 
four hundred pair of walrus tusks. In 1750 they were very 
plentiful in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Yet in 1841 so rare 
had they become, one was reported killed "as far soivfh 
as the Gulf of St. Lawrence." It may be noted that the 
walrus are not migratory in habit. Even in the polar 



THE OCEAN MAMMALS 363 

seas it would seem they are getting scarcer, and the huge 
herds once so common are now seldom seen. The ex- 
tinction of the walrus in Hudson Bay will mean death to 
many of the only class of human beings able to flourish 
in that environment. Nevertheless, the increasingly fatal 
weapons of modern civilization are being directed against 
the walrus for the paltry return they give the white man 
or for "pure sport." 

Surely the time has come to extend some protection to 
the northern people by preserving almost their sole food- 
supply. Professor Henry Elliot describes the absolute 
destitution of two villages of three hundred Eskimo, whom 
he knew personally and regarded as a superior race of 
Eskimo; their starvation, in this case, resulted from the 
fact that a special movement of the ice that year deprived 
them of walrus. A. P. Low records the death of every 
single soul in a Hudson Bay community from starvation 
because the whalers had supplied modern weapons to neigh- 
bouring Eskimo, who were then employed in destroying the 
only walrus (for export of the skins) available to the fated 
settlement. Were it in my power, I would most certainly 
close for " civilized" walrus hunting all the water to the 
west of Labrador and Baffin's Bay, and thus prevent the 
intentional or the unintentional robbing of another people's 
means of existence. 

After all, the walrus catch is of no great value to the 
white man. The dense skin from a half inch to three inches 
in thickness is useful only for a few special purposes. The 
ivory of the tusks keeps its colour well, but is very faulty, 
and not large enough for the manufacture of billiard balls. 
It is of comparatively little value. I once bought from a 



364 LABBADOR 

trader here a whole boxful of tusks at thirty cents a pound. 
The largest tusks I have had from a Labrador walrus 
weighed, when cleaned and dried, six and one-quarter 
pounds. Possibly a very extraordinary pair might weigh 
ten pounds. 

The old male walrus would scale twenty-five hundred 
pounds, be about fifteen feet long, and has measured as 
much around the waist. They are clumsy, lethargic beasts, 
gregarious and monogamous. They are slow in the water, 
and dead slow on the land, advancing by hauling painfully 
along by their fore flippers, or if hurrying into the water 
" rolling over anyhow." Amusing accounts have been 
written as to how they wait for succeeding waves to heave 
them out on sandy beaches, rather than scramble up them- 
selves ; when thousands are together, the last comers lie on 
top of the earlier arrivals, simply because they are too 
apathetic to move on. They appear to have a fair sense 
of smell, but not to rely on sight or sound for protection 
from their enemies, among whom is the polar bear. 

Professor Elliot describes how he watched a herd basking 
on an Alaskan beach, and before one dodged off to sleep, 
it poked the next one and woke it up. This grape-vine 
telegraph seemed to be for the purpose of having one always 
somewhat on the alert. They are shy and harmless, 
digging up clams with their tusks for food, and also browsing 
on some of the seaweeds. They have been known to attack 
a kayak, or boat, but only when wounded or when defending 
their young. They use their tusks for helping themselves 
out on an ice edge. 

Though to Europeans of so little value, to an Eskimo 
the walrus may mean everything, — meat, clothing, light, 



THE OCEAN MAMMALS 365 

housing, boats, weapons, nets (from plaited bowel) ; every- 
thing necessary can be got from a good walrus. However, 
the skin of the ring seal or the bay seal is the Eskimo's 
usual clothing. Only the blown and dried gut, which is 
sewn with sinew and makes an excellent oilskin jumper, 
and is mostly used in kayaking, is obtained from the walrus. 

The meat is black, and to us offensive. We were walking 
along the beach one day, and, while crossing a pebbly ridge, 
felt it move up and down as if it were on soft rubber. We 
moved a few top layers of stones, and found an immense 
cache of raw walrus meat left against next winter. An- 
other cache we saw barred into the end of a sea-worn cave. 
This was, however, so odoriferous, we could only suppose 
it was in reserve for the dogs. A sick Eskimo boy that we 
had for twelve months as a patient would at first eat no 
"kablenak" food. We had to keep a supply of dried 
walrus meat that looked like tarred leather. This he would 
tear in strips with his teeth and eat raw, somewhat as men 
chew plug tobacco. The tusks are the greatest prize, how- 
ever, for on these the Eskimo depend for their harpoon tops, 
the bone being heavy and curved exactly as they like it. 
We brought out one year a few iron harpoon tops for some 
northern friends. But I found they did not use them, 
greatly preferring the native tusk tops. These are most 
skilfully made ; they are purposely divided into three pieces 
so that when the harpooned walrus puts a heavy strain on 
the line, the pieces come apart, leaving the barbed head 
inside the animal. Thus the weapon itself does not 
break. 

The harp seal (Phoca Grcenlandica) is far the most abun- 
dant seal on the Labrador. In the late autumn he comes 



366 LABRADOR 

south from Melville Sound and from even more northern 
waters during November to February: at this season the 
East Coast men set gill-nets for them. About the first 
of March they bring forth their young on the ice-floes off 
the coast, and also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as far as the 
Magdalene Islands, and even Nova Scotia. For this they 
herd together in tens of thousands on the floating ice, 
which under ordinary circumstances should afford them 
safety. But at this time when they are absolutely unable 
to escape, the Newfoundlanders hunt them in large steamers, 
and kill immense numbers of the babies by clubbing them. 
From two hundred and fifty thousand to five hundred 
thousand is the average number thus destroyed annually. 
The babies are quite white, called " white-coats," and are 
almost all born on the same day, and also take to the water 
on the same day, three weeks later. The baby fur comes 
off at this time. He is then called a " ragged-coat." The 
fur of still-born babes does not come off, and the skins are 
therefore more valuable and are called "cats." 

During these (generally three) weeks, the ice has been 
drifting rapidly to the south. The mother seal has kept 
a blow-hole open up through the ice near where she left 
the baby, and through this she has been away fishing 
every day. She gives such rich milk that her offspring 
can be almost seen to grow. They are so fat that I have 
seen them looking, in their ice cradles, like bladders full of 
lard, as they lay on their backs in the hot sun, fanning 
themselves with their flippers. The mother at last forces 
the pup to take to the water, and a mysterious instinct at 
once teaches him to "go north, young man." This he does 
in leisurely fashion, and by the end of May these "beating 



THE OCEAN MAMMALS 367 

seals/' as they are called/ have mostly passed along the 
Labrador coast. 

When these poor creatures are killed, the waste is terrible. 
I have seen three or four thousand bodies of young seals, 
freshly stripped of their furry jackets, left to rot, or be a 
prey for sharks, as the case may be. The sealing industry 
is a very popular one, however, in Newfoundland. The 
sealing masters are the great men of the fishery, and there 
can be no question that from the sealer's point of view, 
the adventure, the call for pluck and hardihood, and the 
gamble of it, beyond the few dollars each man may make, 
are great attractions. It is not true, so far as I have seen, 
that brutalities, such as flaying alive, are ever practised. 
Nor can any one, knowing the men as intimately as I 
do, ever believe them capable of any such abominable 
atrocities. 

The " beater seal" returns as a "bedlamer" with his 
fellow-beaters left from the previous year, when the old 
seals come south next winter. He plays about among the 
floes, and returns again north in the spring, to come back 
a " young harp" the third winter, ready to do his share in 
maintaining the race. Often, however, he does not breed 
till the fourth year, when he assumes the dignity and name 
of an " old harp." The saddle, or harp, is a large, bilateral, 
black, wing-shaped patch across his back showing well on 
the lighter, drab-coloured skin of the rest of his body. 

Even when the dangers of the ice-floes are over, where 
many old seals, as well as the young, are slaughtered, the 
harp is still not safe on his northern journey. In May and 
June, along the shores of Labrador huge frame nets are put 
out from a capstan on the land. The great room of net 



368 LABBADOB 

has a doorway which, once the seals have entered the room, 
is raised by winding up the capstan on the land. As the 
seals trim the shores, and even follow round the bays on 
their long journey, many are caught in this way. I have 
known one settler's family to take nine hundred seals, while 
three hundred to four hundred forms a catch by no means 
unusual. Not nearly so many seals, however, are taken 
nowadays, spring or autumn, and one can see many aban- 
doned capstans standing on rocky points. At one little 
Labrador settlement a trapper of the name of Jones be- 
came so rich through regular large catches of seals that he 
actually had a carriage and horses sent from Quebec, and 
a road made to drive them on; while he had a private 
musician hired from Canada for the whole winter to per- 
form at his continuous f eastings. I was called on awhile 
ago to help to supply clothing to cover the nakedness of this 
man's grandchildren. 

Yet another mode of welcome the poor harp gets from 
southerners, when it leaves its northern home to visit us. 
That is given with buck-shot and musket, ball and rifle. 
The process is called swatching, and is carried on by two 
men in a light rodney, or punt, which is sometimes provided 
with runners. The seals are bound to rise in the " ponds," 
or fissures, between the great pans of the Arctic floe, to take 
breath. The plan is to "get by a likely lead of water," 
build a "gaze," or shelter, out of ice blocks, and "bide your 
time." You must be absolutely alert to get any seals. I 
have myself chosen a small lead and watched, lying down 
with rifle ready loaded, cocked, and pointed, and yet many 
times a great harp has noiselessly put up his head and 
shoulders and gone down, leaving only a ripple on the sur- 



THE OCEAN MAMMALS 369 

face, before I could draw a bead on him. Then for a short 
time he floats at this time of the year, and you must rush off 
your boat, or throw your many-hooked jigger over him, and 
haul him quickly up on to the ice, if you are strong enough 
to do so. 

If the seals are basking on the ice as the boat approaches, 
the men shout and wave, and even fire under the seal, which 
seems to so frighten him that he remains staring into space, 
till they land and club him with the rifle. As the slain 
animal does not move, the others think there can be no 
danger, and will at times allow a man to land and shoot 
or club them every one. 

Our next most important seal is the bay seal. He is a 
small seal, weighing only about one hundred pounds and 
looking rather dingy in a drab coat with faded black mark- 
ings. Nor are they very numerous, never being seen in 
herds. Yet they will probably outlast all the others, being 
the most adaptable to their varied environment. They are 
found in the Pacific and Atlantic, in Europe, Asia, and 
America, and in the south seas. They can bear heat or 
cold. I have shot them when driving my komatik over 
a frozen arm of the sea, tolling them into range by lying 
flat down and waving my feet to represent a seal ; I have 
also secured them in the hot summer when the mosquitoes 
and the heat have made the period of waiting almost un- 
bearable. Bay seals are equally at home in salt water or 
fresh. Some of our rivers are almost ruined for ordinary 
fishing by the number of bay seals that infest their pools. 
This " robber of the river," to use the name of the 
salmon fisherman, is there shown no mercy by the fisher- 
men, and cannot possibly escape. The seals will watch 

2b 



370 LABBABOB 

the salmon nets so carefully, and eat the struggling cap- 
tives so rapidly, that there is little wonder most fisher- 
men are "agin them." I have known a seal haunt a net 
so persistently that to get any fish the owner had to watch 
all the while at one end of it, and even then the seal was 
so "well adapted to his environment" that he would almost 
snap off the fisherman's hand as he raced to be first to dis- 
entangle the salmon. The bay seals are captured by our 
people in nets anchored to the bottom. When diving, the 
seals become "meshed" and are soon drowned, as they 
cannot rise to breathe. 

The seals can travel a considerable distance over land 
and can remain for long periods out of water. The harbour 
seal (Phoca vitulina) breeds and lives in Seal Lake, one 
hundred miles inland from Richmond Gulf and eight 
hundred feet above the sea. In winter this seal leaves for 
islands in the open where the sea does not freeze. The bay 
seals of the coast breed on the land in caves, rocks, or beaches. 
I have seen them many times with their young. When 
the baby is born, he is a dusky white, but he soon assumes 
a most beautiful silvery coat mottled with black, which 
he wears for a year. During this time he is called a 
"ranger," and his skin makes the most attractive clothing, 
sleeping-bags, pouches, etc. 

At three years the ranger becomes a "doter" and is 
a breeding seal. The young are born in April and May 
in southern Labrador, and later on as one gets farther north. 
The young seal is able to take to the water at once. It is 
said that the "baby-hair" is cast inside the mother before 
his birth. 

Clever as the modern circus "feature" shows seals to be, 



THE OCEAN MAMMALS 371 

they are easily decoyed in the manner above described. 
Once, however, the biter got bitten. For one of our Eskimo, 
who had hidden himself in a sealskin bag and was lying on 
a favourite basking rock flapping his legs, was mistaken for 
a seal by a passer-by on the shore, who promptly sent a 
bullet through him. 

The large, gentle eye makes the seal's appearance ex- 
ceedingly attractive, and those inclined to be sentimental 
have found in him a great scope for their effusions. As 
a matter of fact, he eats his prey alive. He will take a bit 
out of a fish, and leave the rest to struggle away and die 
slowly. They are fierce fighters, and will catch and eat 
birds swimming on the surface of the water. One was seen 
devouring a salmon alive. The seal swallowed him by 
inches, swimming a mile while the struggle lasted. It 
seemed an open question whether he would succeed or not. 
Another seal was seen to capture a gull on the water, but 
the persistent harrying he got from the rest of the birds 
persuaded him to let the wounded victim go. 

The ringed seal, Phoca hispida, so dearly loved of Green- 
landers, and so prized by their people for clothing, is rare 
in Labrador, only a few specimens being taken, and those 
in the extreme north. 

Nor does the hooded (or hood) seal (Cystophora cristata) 
come much to the shore. Indeed, the ringed seal is a 
glacial seal, and the hood a pelagic and glacial seal. The 
hoods breed in the ice off our shores in March, a little later 
than the harps, and their baby, dark on the back, is called 
a " blue-coat." The old ones are slightly larger than the 
harps, and the skin is covered with black patches. The 
strange bag on the head, which is inflated from the nose, 



372 LABRADOR 

is probably only an ornament like a crest. Some think it 
is specially provided to protect its nose from seal bats or 
clubs, — of course an impossible theory, for sufficient time 
has not yet elapsed for Nature to have evolved armour 
against the sealers in the ice-field, any more than she has 
yet provided for the ideal requirements of twentieth century 
foot-ball man. The hood seal has been so far exterminated 
in its favourite resort between Greenland and Iceland, that 
the fishery has had to be abandoned. 

This seal displays great strength, courage, and affection in 
defending its young, and I have seen a whole family die 
together on a pan of ice not twelve yards square. Four 
men with wooden seal bats did the killing, but not before 
the male had caught one club in his mouth and cleared his 
enemies off the pan by swinging it from side to side. The 
old seal, which must have weighed fully two thousand 
pounds, was hoisted on board whole (or unsculped), so as 
not to delay the steamer. He was apparently quite dead. 
As, however, he came over the rail, the strap broke, and 
he fell back into the sea. The cold water must have re- 
vived him, for I saw him return to the same pan of ice, 
distinguishable by the blood stains left by the recent 
battle, and now some little distance astern. The edge 
of the pan was almost six feet above water, but he leaped 
clear over the edge, and landed almost in the spot where 
his family had met their tragic fate. The men immediately 
ran back and killed him with bullets. He was this time 
sculped, and so brought aboard. 

The strength of the hood seal is also well illustrated by 
the fact that he can descend for food to a depth of sixty 
or even ninety fathoms. This is shown by the fact that a 



THE OCEAN MAMMALS 373 

deep-sea fish called "bergylt," which only lives between 
those depths, has been found in his stomach. 

The last and largest of our seals is the gray seal (Hali- 
chcerus grypus). We measured one eleven feet long, with 
a girth of eight feet. No doubt, however, larger ones have 
been killed. These seals are practically devoid of hair, 
make the best possible material for covering kayaks, and 
for the manufacture of water-tight feet for boots. The 
skin of the harp seal is used for the legs and for the bottoms 
as well, when the boots are to be used in the coldest weather, 
because this skin is so much softer, and allows freer move- 
ment; but the gray sealskin is much more resistant to 
water. The gray seal is generally shot as he plays along 
the ice edges, but is occasionally meshed in sunken nets. 

Professor E. Wiedlein, now director of the famous 
Pittsburgh Laboratories, called "The Mellon Institute," 
studied during two seasons the secretions of the ductless 
glands of our whales. He isolated a crystalline ' ' adrena- 
lin," that was a stable substance and gave a solution 
that did not decompose in contact with the air. The 
synthesising of this under the commercial name super 
rennin has, however, prevented the need for extracting it 
commercially. The pituitary body was as large as a 
man's fist — the adrenal body about a foot long. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE BIRDS 

By Charles Wendell Townsend, M.D. 

From an ornithological point of view, Labrador has an 
interesting past as well as present. The great Audubon 
testified to the wonderful interest of Labrador to the orni- 
thologist, by visiting this country in 1833. His writings 
contain frequent reference to the observations he made 
at that time, and he states in his Labrador Journal that he 
executed or partly executed seventeen plates of birds during 
his brief sojourn of two months on these shores. 

Since Audubon's times there have been sad changes in 
the bird life of this country. Two species have become 
extinct; namely, the great auk and the Labrador, or pied, 
duck. The former bred in great numbers on Funk Island 
off the near-by coast of Newfoundland, but was slaughtered 
mercilessly during the latter part of the eighteenth and the 
beginning of the nineteenth centuries. Cartwright de- 
scribes the capture of one of these flightless birds, not far 
from the southern coast of Labrador. He says, calling 
the bird by its common name of " penguin": "We were 
about four leagues from Groais Island at sunset [Mon- 
day, August 5, 1771] when he saw a snow [sailing-vessel] 
standing in for Croque. During a calm in the afternoon, 
Shuglawina went off in his kyack in pursuit of a penguin; 

374 



THE BIRDS 375 

he presently came within a proper distance of the bird, 
and struck his dart into it; but, as the weapon did not 
enter a mortal part, the penguin swam and dived so well, 
that he would have lost both the bird and the dart, had he 
not driven it near enough the vessel for me to shoot it." 
The last auk seen alive was in 1852. 

The Labrador duck doubtless occurred in abundance in 
past times along the Labrador coast. Audubon was shown 
nests supposed to belong to this species, but he saw none 
of the birds, and there is much doubt as to the identity of 
the nests. Cartwright speaks in his Journal several times 
of shooting pied ducks, and there are reasons to believe 
that these were Labrador ducks, although the evidence is 
of course not absolute. That this duck is now extinct, 
there seems no doubt, as none has been seen or shot since 
about 1874. 

Another bird which seems to be going the same way 
towards extinction, a bird which has been in times past 
perhaps the most characteristic bird of Labrador, is the 
Eskimo curlew. This bird visited the coast regions in 
countless multitudes every autumn on its southward mi- 
gration. Professor Packard, writing of the Eskimo curlew 
in 1860 in Labrador, says : — 

"On the 10th of August the curlews appeared in great 
numbers. On that day we saw a flock which may have 
been a mile long and nearly as broad; there must have 
been in that flock four or five thousand ! The sum total 
of their notes sounded at times like the wind whistling 
through the ropes of a thousand-ton vessel ; at others the 
sound seemed like the jingling of multitudes of sleigh- 
bells." 



376 LABBADOB 

The birds were delicious eating. They fattened almost 
to bursting on the Empetrum, or curlewberry, so abundant 
along the coast. The fishermen kept their guns loaded, 
and shot into the great flocks as they wheeled by, bringing 
down many a fat bird. About 1888 or 1890 the curlew 
rapidly diminished in numbers, and at the present day 
perhaps a dozen or two, or possibly none at all, are seen in 
a season. 

The rocky islands which line the Labrador coast have 
always been favourite breeding places for various water- 
birds, chief among which may be mentioned the puffin, 
black guillemot, the common and Briinnich's murres, 
razor-billed auk, great black-backed gull, glaucous gull, 
herring gull, Arctic tern, common and double-crested cor- 
morants, and American and Greenland eider-ducks. These 
formerly bred abundantly all along the coast, and before 
the arrival of the white man paid a comparatively small and 
unimportant tribute to the greed of polar bears, Eskimos, 
and Indians. This natural pruning, as it might be called, 
had little or no influence on the numbers of the birds. 
White men, however, with their insatiable greed and their 
more systematic methods, have created havoc in the ranks 
of these interesting water-fowl. In Audubon's time the 
vile business of " egging," as it was called, was at its height, 
and the horrors of the business are graphically pictured by 
the great ornithologist. He describes a shallop with a crew 
of eight men : — 

" There rides the filthy thing! The afternoon is half 
over. Her crew have thrown their boat overboard, they 
enter and seat themselves, each with a rusty gun. One 
of them sculls the skiff towards an island, for a century 



THE BIRDS 377 

past the breeding place of myriads of guillemots, which 
are now to be laid under contribution. At the ap- 
proach of the vile thieves, clouds of birds rise from the 
rock and fill the air around, wheeling and screaming over 
their enemies. Yet thousands remain in an erect posture, 
each covering its single egg, the hope of both parents. 
The reports of several muskets loaded with heavy shot are 
now heard, while several dead and wounded birds fall 
heavily on the rock or into the water. Instantly all the 
sitting birds rise and fly off affrighted to their companions 
above, and hover in dismay over their assassins, who walk 
forward exultingly, with their shouts mingling oaths and 
execrations. Look at them ! See how they crush the 
chick within its shell, how they trample on every egg in 
their way with their huge and clumsy boots. Onward 
they go, and when they leave the isle, not an egg that they 
can find is left entire. . . . The light breeze enables them 
to reach another harbour a few miles distant, one which 
like the last lies concealed from the ocean by some rocky 
isle. Arrived there, they react the scene of yesterday, 
crushing every egg they can find. For a week each night 
is passed in drunkenness and brawls, until, having reached 
the last breeding place on the coast, they return, touch at 
every isle in succession, shoot as many birds as they need, 
collect the fresh eggs, and lay in a cargo." 

The days of commercial egging have long since passed 
and the laws against egging and shooting the nesting birds 
are now fairly enforced in Canadian Labrador. In New- 
foundland Labrador, however, there seems to be no pre- 
tence of bird or egg protection. The inhabitants and the 
summer fishermen appear to consider the eggs and the 
breeding parents as godsends to eke out their scanty larder. 
Knowing every rock on the coast as these men do, they can 
easily keep in touch with the birds and rob them of their 



378 LABRADOR 

treasures. When I was in Labrador in the summer of 1906, 
the fishermen made no concealment of the fact that they 
took all the eggs and killed all the birds they could. They 
often carried their guns with them when they visited their 
fish-traps. In the spring and fall great numbers of migrat- 
ing ducks, and even gulls, are shot as they stream through 
the narrow tickles. 

The Eskimo dogs are not fed in summer, and, foraging 
for themselves, they ransack the coast and undoubtedly 
destroy many eggs and young, not only of the larger water- 
birds, but also of other ground nesting birds, such as pipits 
and horned larks. 

It is sincerely to be hoped that the wonderful nursery 
for water-birds in Labrador will not be entirely depopulated, 
but that sufficient protection for the breeding birds will be 
given, and that speedily, lest it be soon too late. 

Notwithstanding these inroads on the birds, Labrador is 
still of great interest to the ornithologist, and it may be 
well to take up in turn some of the characteristic birds * 
to be found at the present day in the three faunal zones 
into which the Labrador peninsula may be divided, — 
the Arctic Zone, the Hudsonian Zone, and the Canadian 
Zone. 

The Arctic Zone includes the barren grounds above the 
limit of tree growth on all the larger hills and mountains in 
the interior, the whole northern portion as far south as 
about lat. 58°, and the entire coastal strip of varying 

1 In a recent study of the birds of Labrador by Dr. Glover M. 
Allen and myself, we have recorded two hundred and thirteen species 
and subspecies of birds for the Labrador peninsula, as shown in the 
list in the Appendix. 



THE BIRDS 379 

width from Natashquan on the southern coast along the 
shore of the Straits of Belle Isle, the entire eastern coast, 
and the Hudson Bay coast south to about the region of the 
mouth of the Great Whale River. 

Two characteristic Arctic birds, which the visitor along 
the southern and eastern coast will be most likely to see, 
are the American pipit and the horned lark. These are 
common everywhere along the coast, building their nests 
in the deep moss of the barren hills. Both birds are grace- 
ful walkers along the ground, and the pipit distinguishes 
itself by its habit of constantly wagging its tail up and down. 
Both birds are interesting singers, and both indulge in flight 
songs, each in its own peculiar manner. The pipit suddenly 
springs up into the air, mounting nearly vertically, but 
circling slightly. Up, up it goes, singing repeatedly a simple 
refrain, che whee, che whee, with a vibratory resonance on 
the whee. Attaining an eminence of perhaps two hundred 
feet, it checks itself and at once begins its descent. Down 
it goes, faster and faster, repeating its song at the same 
time faster and faster. Long before it reaches the ground, 
it sets its wings and tips from side to side to break its 
descent. During the performance it may emit its refrain 
eighty times. 

The horned lark, on the other hand, mounts silently into 
the air in irregular circles, until it becomes a mere speck in 
the sky. Here it alternately flaps its wing and sails, emit- 
ting a jingling, squeaking, but not unpleasing, song. This 
performance continues for several minutes, during which 
the bird repeats its song many times. Then the song ceases, 
and the bird dives to the earth as silently as it rose. Oc- 
casionally the song is given from the ground. The song 



380 LABRADOR 

resembles in kind but not in quality the famous song of 
the English skylark. 

Another common bird in this coastal strip is one that 
is also a dweller farther south, an inhabitant of the eastern 
United States ; namely, the savanna sparrow, and strangely 
out of place does it seem here. 

In the more northern parts of the Arctic Zone of Labrador 
are to be found the Lapland longspur, the wheatear, possibly 
the white wagtail, the snow-bunting, snowy owl, rock 
ptarmigan, Reinhardt's ptarmigan, the white, gray, and 
black gyrfalcons, and the American rough-legged hawk, 
although these four last-named birds may be found even 
on the southern coast. 

The American rough-legged hawk is a splendid broad- 
winged bird almost black in colour. It may sometimes be 
seen poised motionless for several minutes at a time over 
the brow of a hill, sustaining itself like a kite by the air 
currents. The gyrfalcons have more pointed wings, and 
the whiteness of the plumage of the white, or Iceland, species 
makes it very conspicuous among the dark crags where 
it nests. 

The two ptarmigans already mentioned, as well as the 
willow ptarmigan, which is found in the region of tree growth 
of the Hudsonian Zone, resemble their compatriot, the 
Arctic hare, not only in becoming white in winter, but also 
in possessing shaggy feet at this season, — feet densely 
tufted with hair in one case, with feathers in the other. 
This tufting probably acts in the manner of snow-shoes 
to prevent sinking into the deep snow, and not merely 
to keep the feet warm. The generic name of the ptarmigan 
is Lagopus, which means rabbit-footed. In the same way 



THE BIBDS 381 

the snowy owl's feet are well padded and tufted with 
feathers. 

The change of colour in the ptarmigan from the brown 
and mottled plumage of summer to the snowy white of 
winter is due not to any mysterious change in the feathers 
themselves, but to the moulting of the brown feathers and 
to their replacement by others of a different colour. Both 
plumages are wonderfully protective, and it is as difficult 
to see the brown bird amid its barren surroundings in sum- 
mer as it is to see the white bird amid the snow and ice 
in winter. 

While the coastal strip is under consideration, it will be 
well to speak of the water-birds that breed along the shore. 
Of the small wading birds one of the most interesting is 
the northern phalarope, not much larger than a "peep," 
that bears the name of "gale bird" on the Labrador coast, 
"sea-goose" on the New England coast. It has a habit 
of riding the water both of the sea and of the reedy pools 
like a miniature goose or duck. On the shores of these 
reedy pools along the coast, the females lay the eggs, but 
confide to the males, smaller and less brightly plumaged 
birds, the duties of incubation and caring for the young, 
while they go gadding in companies off at sea. Least and 
spotted sandpipers and semipalmated plover also breed 
on the Labrador coast, but most of this group go farther 
north to raise their young. 

Of the divers, the loon and red-throated loon breed com- 
monly near fresh-water ponds, and are to be met with in 
considerable numbers along the coast. The black-throated 
loon is occasionally found in the northern portions. 

The puffin, or parroquet, as it is universally called in 



382 LABRADOR 

Labrador, breeds at favourable spots all along the coast, but 
it is to be seen in greatest abundance in the Straits of Belle 
Isle near Bradore. Here it breeds in great numbers at 
Parroquet Island; a small island of crumbling red sand- 
stone in which it burrows and lays its single egg. The 
puffin is a good bird to watch from a steamer, for it allows 
of close approach before it attempts to get out of the way. 
After nervously dabbing with its bill at the water a few 
times, it either dives or flies away. In both cases it may 
be said to fly away, for in diving it flops out its wings as 
it goes down, and continues to use them under water in 
flight. Whether swimming on the surface, or in aerial 
flight, the shape and appearance of puffins are characteristic. 
They are short and apoplectic in form, being devoid of 
a neck. Their large red bills and gray eye-rings, which 
suggest spectacles, and the dark band about the neck, give 
them a comical appearance. 

The black guillemot, or sea pigeon, is perhaps the most 
ubiquitous bird along the coast. It breeds' securely in 
deep fissures among the rocks. Its black plumage, relieved 
by the large white patches on its wings, makes it very con- 
spicuous. Both the common and Brunnich's murres 
breed along the coast, although in sadly diminished 
ranks as compared with their former abundance. Each 
species lays a single egg on the rocky ledges. The egg 
varies greatly from a delicate blue or bluish green to a 
buffy white, and is wonderfully spotted or streaked with 
various shades of brown. It is pyriform in shape, so that 
it is less liable to roll off its precarious perch. 

The razor-billed auk, or tinker, is also to be found breed- 
ing on the rocky islands, except where the greed of man has 



THE BIRDS 383 

exterminated it. Its broad, sharp bill in summer at once 
distinguishes it from the murre, as well as its habit of cock- 
ing up its tail as it swims. In its short neck it resembles 
the puffin, but it is a larger bird, and as it flies away, it shows 
a black line in the middle of its back between white sides, 
while the puffin looks black from the same point of view. 
The dovekie, or little auk, breeds farther north, but is found 
along the coast during the migrations and in winter. 

Of the gull family it is possible to mention only a few 
here. Perhaps the most beautiful in flight are the hunters 
of the sea, the jaegers, who rob the other gulls and terns 
of their prey. A pomarine jaeger in the black phase twist- 
ing and turning in pursuit of a white kittiwake is indeed 
a beautiful sight. The kitti wakes breed on the high cliffs 
of the northern Labrador coast, but may be seen in great 
flocks anywhere along the shore. An assembly of several 
thousand of these beautiful white birds settling on the 
water and rising to whirl about like gusts of snow driven 
by the wind, is a wonderful sight. Their cries suggest the 
syllables kittiwake. 

The great black-gulled gull and herring gull are such 
familiar birds in winter farther south that they need not 
be mentioned here, but one must not omit to speak of the 
glorious glaucous, or burgomaster, gull. This bird, as large 
as a great black-backed gull, breeds on the eastern coast 
in moderate numbers. The purity of its plumage vies 
with that of the Arctic ice that often surrounds it. The 
long feathers of the wings are spotless white, instead of 
being marked as in the herring gull. The adults have 
a gray-blue mantle on the back, while the immature birds 
lack this mantle and are of a universal whiteness slightly 
tinged with buff. 



384 LABRADOR 

Among the tube-nosed swimmers , the greater and sooty 
shearwaters may sometimes be found in summer in flocks 
of several thousand along this rugged coast. These birds, 
however, do not breed here. In fact, they are spending 
their winter in the neighbourhood, for they breed in the 
Antarctic regions in their summer, our winter. Wilson's 
petrel also wanders here in the same way, while the stormy 
petrel wanders from its breeding grounds along the coast 
of the British Isles. Leache's petrel, however, is a true 
inhabitant, and breeds on the Labrador coast. Both the 
common and the double-crested cormorant, weird-looking 
birds, commonly called " shags," breed on the southern 
shore. A small colony of gannets also are still to be found 
there. 

Many species of ducks migrate along the Labrador coast, 
seeking and returning from their breeding places farther 
north. Others breed on the coast or in the interior on the 
shores of rivers or ponds. Perhaps the most conspicuous 
bird in this group, one that still attempts to hide its nest 
from devastating man or Eskimo dog, along the shores of 
the sea-coast, is the American eider. In its nest it lays from 
five to eight large, pale greenish eggs slightly tinged with 
olive. These eggs it protects and keeps warm with the 
eider-down which it plucks from its breast. They are 
large birds, and generally fly in single file low over the water. 
The strikingly marked males, with the black bellies and 
white breasts, necks, and backs, are easily recognized. The 
female is a great brownish bird, looking very dark in some 
lights, and entirely lacks distinctive markings. Both sexes 
have, however, a characteristic way of holding the bill 
pointing obliquely downward at an angle, instead of straight 



THE BIRDS 885 

out before them like most ducks. The king eider, a wonder- 
fully marked bird, breeds in scanty numbers along the 
coast, and the Greenland eider is a breeder in the northern 
parts of the country. 

The three species of scoters, or sea-coots, as they are 
called, breed in the interior, but numbers of each species are 
always to be found in summer along the sea-coast. A small 
duck that is diminishing in numbers still breeds in the 
interior of Labrador along the course of streams. This is 
the harlequin duck, as curiously variegated in colours as is 
the individual for which it is named. After the breeding 
season, this bird resorts to the salt water. 

Of the geese, the Canada goose alone breeds commonly 
in the interior of Labrador, and is often caught by the 
natives during its helpless moulting period. 

The heron and rail family are represented in Labrador 
by but few species, and those mostly stragglers. 

The upper limit of the Hudsonian Zone coincides with 
the upper limit of the tree growth. The lower limit cannot 
be accurately placed, for it glides imperceptibly into the Ca- 
nadian Zone. There are frequently offshoots and islands of 
the Canadian Zone in favourable localities in the Hudsonian 
Zone, just as there are offshoots and islands of the Hud- 
sonian Zone in the Arctic Zone. The most characteristic 
Hudsonian bird and one that clings closely to the out- 
skirts of the Arctic Zone, often indeed invading.its territory, 
is the white-crowned sparrow, well called the aristocrat of 
its family. A most distinguished-looking individual he is, 
with his snow-white crown and white bars over the eyes. 
The area of the white crown is enlarged when he erects it 
in pride or passion, or when the wind blows it up. This is 

2c 



386 LABRADOR 

the familiar dooryard bird of the bleak Labrador coast. 
He sings from the roof of the turf-covered tilt, or from the 
cross-stays of the fishing schooner in the narrow tickle. 
He contentedly picks up crumbs and insects about the 
houses and makes his nest in the thickets of spruces or 
firs that are unable to struggle more than two or three 
feet above the earth. His call note is characteristic and 
easily recognized, a metallic chink. He also has a sharp, 
chipping alarm note. His song is pleasing, although it has 
not the familiar charm of his cousin, the Peabody bird, or 
the power and brilliancy of that of the fox sparrow. It 
sounds something like more wet-wetter-wet-chezee. There is 
a long and somewhat mournful stress laid on the first note, 
and a buzz not easily expressed in words comes near the end. 

Another Hudsonian bird that frequents the stunted 
trees and bushes on the borders of the Arctic Zone is the 
tree sparrow. The chestnut crown and large black spot 
on the otherwise spotless breast make it easily recognized. 
His song is simple and easily memorized, seet-seet, — sit- 
iter — sweet-sweet. 

Two other sparrows are common and characteristic of 
this zone. The Lincoln's sparrow, discovered by Audubon 
in Labrador and named by him after his young friend Tom 
Lincoln, resembles closely the song sparrow of more south- 
ern regions. Its disposition, however, is very different, for 
it is a most retiring bird, skulking out of sight in the bushes 
if it but suspects that it is an object of interest. Instead 
of mounting to a conspicuous post to sing like its cousin, 
the song sparrow, it is apt to select the interior of a fir bush 
for this performance, and the listener often looks in vain 
for the songster. The song is varied, but partakes at times 



THE B1BD8 387 

of the warbling character of the song of the purple finch 
and of the wren. It is wild and mournful, and well fits 
its surroundings. 

Of a different type is the fox sparrow. A large, hand- 
some, rather showily dressed bird is he, one that does not 
hide his light under a bushel. As a musician he takes first 
rank. He is a performer of high merit. His clear and 
flutelike notes ring out with great purity, yet his song 
has not the charm of some simpler bird melodies. 

The redpoll belongs also in this zone, although it hardly 
appears to have a local habitation, such a restlessly wan- 
dering bird is it. Its chug chug as it flies recalls the white- 
winged crossbill's call note, and its sweet dee-ar resembles 
closely the similar note of its cousin goldfinch. Frequently 
in the breeding season it waxes melodious in its own way, 
and flies about in irregular circles, alternately chug chugging, 
and emitting a finely drawn rattle or trill. 

The Tennessee warbler and the Wilson's warbler are both 
found in this zone, the former a very plain, inconspicuous 
bird, the latter bright yellow with a glossy black cap. The 
Tennessee warbler is as inconspicuous in its habits as in its 
plumage, and retires to the depths of thickets when the 
observer endeavours to learn its secrets. The Wilson's 
warbler, on the other hand, does not hesitate to display 
its charms at close range, and sings its simple little song. 

Two other birds, both fine singers, may be mentioned 
here, for they belong in this Hudsonian Zone; namely, the 
ruby-crowned kinglet and Alice's thrush. That the di- 
minutive kinglet can produce such a loud and wonderfully 
clear and varied song is always a surprise and delight. 
The Alice's thrush is a common bird in the scrubby woods 



388 LABBADOB 

on the edge of the Arctic Zone. Its call note resembles 
at times the call of the night-hawk, at times the call of the 
veery. Its song, which may be heard in the long summer 
twilight of Labrador even after nine o'clock, is interesting 
and beautiful. It begins with a single or double note, 
followed by a long veery-like vibration, sweet yet mournful. 

The Canadian Zone includes the wooded region of south- 
ern Labrador. Its limits cannot be accurately defined, and 
the birds of this and the Hudsonian Zone intermingle. 
Sheltered valleys often enable the Canadian birds to ex- 
tend far north into the region of the Hudsonian class. 

It is impossible in the space of this chapter to do more 
than mention a few of the characteristic birds. The 
spruce grouse and the Canadian ruffed grouse here take 
the place of the willow ptarmigan of the Hudsonian Zone 
and the rock ptarmigan of the Arctic Zone. The spruce 
grouse is so tame or so stupid that it is often caught by 
a noose on a short stick. The Labrador jay is a sub- 
species of the Canada jay, and resembles its cousin closely 
in its pilfering habits and in the variety and weirdness of 
its call or conversational notes. The young of the year 
are dark plumbeous in colour, and resemble large cat-birds. 
Pine grosbeaks, white- winged and American crossbills, 
and pine siskins are all to be found here on the borders of 
the Hudsonian and Canadian zones. They are all de- 
pendent for their food-supply on the cone crop of the spruces 
and firs. When the crop fails, they wander widely in winter 
and visit more southern localities. The common warbler, 
whose range extends throughout the wooded area even 
to the edge of the Arctic Zone, is the black-poll warbler^ 
whose simple song can often be heard in little islands of 



THE BIRDS 389 

struggling spruces among the barren rocks. The Hud- 
sonian chickadee is also found here. 

Still more southern and more Canadian in their distribu- 
tion are the olive-sided and yellow-bellied flycatchers, 
the white-throated sparrow, and purple finch. The well- 
known Peabody song of the white-throated sparrow recalls 
the pastures of Maine. This song has a charm and beauty 
unsurpassed even by the songs of more power and com- 
plexity. The magnolia, myrtle, bay-breasted, yellow- 
palm, black-throated green, and Canadian warblers, and 
northern water-thrush are also found in these more southern 
regions. The winter wren, golden-crowned kinglet, black- 
capped chickadee, olive-backed thrush, and hermit thrush 
also occur here. The divine song of the hermit thrush heard 
in the wilds of Labrador is indeed an inspiration. 

There remain to be added a few wide-ranging birds that 
have not been included in these classes. The northern 
raven may be mentioned first. While the American crow 
is rarely found in Labrador, and then only in the southern 
part, the raven takes its place throughout the country, 
especially on the sea-coast. Here they build their nests 
in inaccessible recesses in the rocky cliffs. No need have 
they when snow covers the ground of a change like the 
ptarmigan to white plumage for protective purposes. 
Their wits alone are sufficient. Their harsh cra-ak or 
cru-uk at once distinguishes them from the crow with its 
familiar caw. Their larger size cannot be depended upon 
as a distinguishing mark, for in vast surroundings one can 
with difficulty judge of size. The rounded tail of the raven 
is a good field mark, for the tail of the crow is nearly even. 

Of the four species of swallows found in northern New 



390 LABRADOR 

England, all but the eave-swallow have been observed in 
Labrador. The strong flying robin abounds in various 
parts of Labrador, pushing its way even to the very edge 
of the Arctic Zone. It is a strange experience to hear the 
familiar morning chorus of the robin in bleak Labrador, 
and to find it building its nest on an Eskimo hut. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE FLORA 
By E. B. Delabarre 

The writer of this chapter is unwilling to allow it a place 
in this book, unless his readers will be truly indulgent and 
permit him to preface it with a brief note of personal apol- 
ogy. It must be read only with the clear understanding 
that it is written not by an expert in botany, but by one 
who, with the limited skill of an amateur, studied the plants 
of Labrador during a long summer's visit, and since then 
has read with eager interest all that he could find bearing on 
the subject. Such a person naturally lacks the technical 
knowledge and trained judgment of a botanist by profes- 
sion, especially in matters of nomenclature, of important 
but not easily observed detail, of good insight into real 
causes and conditions. So the present writer would gladly 
have persuaded a more competent person to take his place. 
Some day the real experts will correct a large number of 
inadequacies in this description. But until they are ready, 
it seems inevitable that a chapter like this must be contrib- 
uted by one who is merely a general observer and ardent 
lover of nature, and who happens to have been on the field, 
even though he lack an equipment sufficient to guard him 

391 



392 LABRADOR 

from making many errors. 1 There is need, then, of indul- 

1 In a previous chapter on this subject, in a " Report of an Expedi- 
tion to Labrador in 1900," published as a Bulletin of the Philadelphia 
Geographical Society, I unfortunately allowed a number of errors to 
occur, especially in exact nomenclature. I welcome this opportunity 
to atone for them as well as is now possible. I stated there that I had 
myself attempted only the more easy identifications, lying well within 
the capacity of the amateur; that, aside from a few special kinds, I 
had submitted my collection to Professor Bailey of Brown University 
for the correct naming of specimens; and that he had submitted all 
doubtful cases to Professors Robinson and Fernald of Harvard Uni- 
versity for approval or revision. In making these statements, I 
seemed to involve all these eminent authorities in responsibility for 
the errors that were included. But, through no fault of others, I 
received a mistaken impression as to the finality of many of Pro- 
fessor Bailey's identifications, failing sometimes to distinguish be- 
tween his confident namings and his mere suggestions, and as to the 
extent to which they had received verification from the professors at 
Harvard. I now feel it a pleasure and a duty to apologize to these 
three men, who cannot be held accountable in any degree for mistakes 
that were due wholly to my own misunderstandings. This case is an 
illustration of the difficulty met with by an amateur who wishes to 
describe strange and interesting places that he has seen, in guarding 
himself against error, and especially in attaching correct names to 
the objects he has observed. 

Since then Professor Fernald has kindly revised my collection, 
and tells me : "The plants are now correctly named, I think, with the 
exception of a few upon which I dare not venture a determination." 
Space is lacking here to indicate all the changes that are necessary 
in my published list. Some new names are secured, some individual 
numbers of plants must be credited elsewhere than as given. But 
mistaken conclusions in using the list may be largely guarded against 
by realizing that the following names are apparently all that need to 
be omitted entirely, or altered to another variety or species, or given 
a more modern nomenclature : Dicentra Canadensis, Draba nivalis > 
Lychnis apetala, Sagina procumbens, Dryas octopetala, Saxifraga 
Hirculus, Epilobium alpinum, var. majus, Archangelica, Aster radula, 
Taraxacum dens-leonis, Andromeda polifolia, Ledum latifolium, Pyrola 
rotundifolia et var., Vaccinium Canadense, V. Vitis-Idaea, Primula 



THE FLORA 393 

gence from the readers of this account. But if this be 
generously extended, the writer permits himself to hope 
that, however inadequate his description may be and how- 
ever subject to later correction, it may serve largely to 
increase the enjoyment of visitors to this fascinating 
country, by enabling them to understand more fully the 
great interest and attractiveness of its plant life. 

Some few visitors to Labrador return with an impres- 
sion that it is a bleak and forbidding country, rude, cruel, 
unattractive, bare of vegetation. But to many others it 
seems full of beauty, of attractiveness, and even of a rich 
and appealing fertility. The latter is the truer view, for 
it is the one gained by those who observe with more seeing 
eyes. Really, the wealth and variety and brilliancy of the 
Labrador growths and flowers are very striking to one who 
can see them at all understandingly. Very little knowl- 
edge of botany and love of plants are needed to realize this 
fact. An added ability to recognize and name the more 
common forms naturally increases enormously one's ap- 
preciation and satisfaction, and is not difficult to acquire. 
It is as important for real enjoyment and profit as to possess 
a similar outline knowledge of the geological forms of the 
land and of the causes that have moulded its scenic features. 
It will not cost a great amount of additional labour to gain 
an even more intimate understanding of the plants, — of 

Misstassinica, Gentiana propinqua, Pedicularis flammea, Polyganum 
littorale, Betula nana, Luzula arcuata, L. hyperborea, Eriophorum 
alpinum, Poa laxa, Lycopodium lucidulum; omit also, but leave the 
synonym given with it: Comarum palustre, Potentilla rubens. In a 
majority of cases these corrections do not imply that the plants thus 
called in this and earlier lists do not exist in Labrador, but that it is 
now possible to give them more accurate names. 



394 LABBADOR 

some of their special means of adaptation to their environ- 
ment, of causes of the particular kinds and particular 
structures that occur, of their relation to food-supply, 
soil and climate, and to insect life. If the observer start 
with some ability to make analyses of flowers, and with a 
simple equipment of books 1 to aid in the identification of 
specimens, he will soon gain acquaintance with all the more 
commonly occurring plants. If, in addition to this, he be 
expert in botany, or will make a carefully selected and 
annotated collection and submit it to some capable botanist 
at home for identification, he may possibly be rewarded by 
the discovery of species and varieties hitherto unknown in 

1 Of books, among the most useful will be : — 

1. As aids to analysis : — 

Britton, Manual of the Flora of the Northern States and Canada. 
Britton and Brown, Illustrated Flora of the Northern States and 

Canada. 
Gray: Synoptical Flora of North America (incomplete). 
Gray: New Manual of Botany, 7th ed., rearranged and revised by 
B. L. Robinson and M. L. Fernald, 1908. 

2. For an understanding of forms and distribution: — 
Schimper: Plant Geography upon a Physiological Basis. Oxford, 

1904. 
Dawson : The Geological History of Plants. 
Hooker: Distribution of Arctic Plants. 

3. For lists of plants already reported from Labrador : — 

See lists of books in Delabarre's Report of Expedition to Labrador 

(Philadelphia Geographical Society, 1902), pp. 172, 194, 197. 

But for their inadequacy, see previous footnote. 

Professor Fernald, our most expert authority on far northern 

plants, informs me that nearly all the published lists of Labrador 

plants contain many errors. Recent studies have given a much more 

intimate acquaintance with the northern flora, and thus all the old 

lists need critical revision. It is impossible, therefore, to give an 

accurate list of all plants thus far observed as occurring in Labrador, 

under their correct names. The whole matter must be decided finally 

by competent authorities 



THE FLOE A 395 

that region, which still offers large opportunities for botani- 
cal as well as for other kinds of exploration. 

Few localities will better repay the amateur or even the 
professional botanist than this, either in aesthetic gratifi- 
cation or in opportunity for scientific research. Labrador 
is one of the most southerly of all countries that have a 
predominantly Arctic vegetation. It is sufficiently far to 
the south to show transitional belts between the temperate 
and Arctic zones, as well as those more strictly Arctic. Like 
all far northern lands, it presents an amazing wealth of 
strikingly coloured flowers, so thickly sown as in many 
places to resemble a cultivated garden. Add to this the 
exceedingly great picturesqueness of its scenery, its unex- 
plored lofty mountains, higher perhaps than any others on 
the Atlantic side of the Americas, its fairly easy accessibility, 
and the decidedly tolerable nature of its brief summers; 
then its attractiveness and charm to those who know it will 
be easy of comprehension. 

Botanically, Labrador may be considered best by divid- 
ing it into two regions of markedly different aspect, — 
the interior and the coast. Of the former but little is 
known, except that it is covered with trees of good growth, 
extending almost to the northern extreme of the country. 
These inteiior portions possess essentially a cold temperate, 
not an Arctic, type of flora. Our knowledge of their plants 
is derived mainly from journeys across it in several direc- 
tions by Dr. Low of the Canadian Geological Survey, and 
from the visit of Mr. Bryant to the Grand Falls. 1 Its 

1 For these descriptions, see Ann. Rep. Geol. Survey of Canada, 
Part L, Vol. VIII, 1896; and Bulletin of Philadelphia Geographical 
Club, March, 1904. Other earlier expeditions through the interior, 



396 LABRADOR 

wealth in accessible timber is considerable, and already 
large mills have been established near the head of Hamil- 
ton Inlet. 

The coastal region, with which all the rest of this chapter 
will be concerned, presents a vegetation of a decidedly 
Arctic type. A cold ocean current from the north bathes 
its shores, bringing with it ice-floes until the last of July, 
and icebergs throughout the rest of the summer. Innu- 
merable snow-drifts linger from winter back again to winter 
in favourable places on the land. Yet for two months of 
summer, at least, the days are long, and the temperature 
does not fall to the freezing-point even at night. Pictur- 
esque hills in the south, and in the north towering, untrodden 
mountains rise directly out of the sea and expose their 
flanks and summits to the unbroken force of the winds. 
The soil is thin, and through it the bare rock frequently 
protrudes. There is usually no lack of moisture in soil or 
air, and many places, especially in the relatively lower 
elevations of the south, are decidedly boggy. 

The characteristic features of an Arctic flora are usually 
attributed to the need it has for struggle and protection 
against severe cold. Schimper has shown that this factor 
itself has almost no direct influence. The greatest cold 
known anywhere is in Siberia, in a region where forests 
still flourish. No special protective devices against cold 
are known ; if any exist, they consist probably in the internal 
structure of the protoplasm itself, not in any observable 
external modifications. The observable peculiarities of 

and the more recent ones of Hubbard, Wallace, and Mrs. Hubbard, 
while adding largely to knowledge of the country, have contributed 
little to botanical information. 



THE FLORA 397 

the vegetation are protections not against cold, but 
against dryness. Even with an abundance of moisture in 
the soil, it may not be readily available for the plant. The 
soil is cold, the bogs are rich in humous acids, the water of 
the shores is full of soluble salts. All these conditions, 
which are the prevailing ones throughout the northern 
country, are unfavourable to the ready absorption of water 
by the plant, and hence lead to physiological dryness. 
This is further increased by the lack of protection against 
drying winds, which tend to produce strong transpiration. 
A plant whose water supply is limited, whether in wet or in 
dry soil, must guard against too great transpiration, espe- 
cially under conditions where this tends to be large. It 
hence assumes a xerophilous structure, or one fitted to con- 
tend with physiological dryness. In this respect the flora 
of Arctic climates, of alpine heights, of bogs, of sea-shore, 
and of deserts will closely resemble one another, though the 
particular devices adopted may vary with different con- 
ditions. 

Except in the rarer situations of sheltered valleys or 
sunny slopes, with relatively warmer soil, water free from 
acids, and protection from wind, the flora of Labrador may 
be considered as universally adopting one form or another 
of the various means fitted to protect it from too great 
dryness. It becomes an absorbingly interesting study to 
observe the different ways in which this object is accom- 
plished. The most evident devices are the following: — 

1. A well-developed system of roots for the absorption 
of nutrient materials and of water. 

2. A low and often stunted growth. This characteristic, 
as a special modification, applies of course to plants that 



398 LABRADOR 

are usually shrubs or trees rather than to those of a naturally 
low, herbaceous type. The former are of very few species, 
mostly willows, alder, and birch, and a few evergreens. 
The height of these will vary much, and will be determined 
largely by the degree of their protection from drying winds, 
whether by the conformation of the land or by a winter 
covering of snow. In very exposed situations they will be 
lacking, or will lie close to the ground, or will have become 
modified into a special low-growing species, such as the 
interesting and widely spread willow, Salix herbacea, each 
plant of which bears but two or three leaves on a single 
unbranching stem, attaining only a fraction of an inch in 
height. 1 

3. Reduction in surface of leaves. These tend to be 
small and thick (Empetrum, Ericacece) or, if thin, either long 
and narrow (Cruciferce, Caryophyllacece, Salicacece, ever- 
greens, grasses, etc.), or deeply lobed (Pedicularis, some 
Rosacece), or much wrinkled with strong veins (Rubus arc- 
ticus, R. Chamcemorus) , or pinnately divided (Leguminosce, 
Filices). The latter form gives them an increased surface 
without disadvantage, because of their special mobility, 

1 Townsend (in Along the Labrador Coast, 1907) gives a few 
measured examples of these stunted growths. He found, for example, 
a larch 9 inches high and f inch in diameter, that was 32 years old ; in 
another case, a balsam fir 13 inches high, 2 inches diameter, with 27 
inches spread, 54 years old. These remind me of the pasture apple 
trees of New England, in whose case the stunting agent is not drying 
winds, but browsing cows. Much the same effect is produced, — a 
lower, thicker, stockier growth, even at great age. I measured one in 
western Massachusetts, for instance, that proved to be 40 years old, 
yet was less than 5 feet in height, with an average diameter of 2 inches 
a little above a much thickened base, and a total spread of about 
7 feet, 



THE FLORA 399 

whereby the leaflets may open out in moderate illumina- 
tion and close together under conditions where transpira- 
tion tends to be excessive, in strong wind or hot sun. 
Another device consists in folding back the edges of the 
leaves underneath (Cassiope tetragona, Ledum, Pinguicula) ; 
and still another, in crowding them thickly together (Cas- 
siope, Bryanthus). All of these many modifications have 
the one object of securing a reduced or reducible transpir- 
ing surface, and almost all the plants of Labrador adopt 
one or another of these methods of accomplishing it. The 
examples given are only illustrative, and might be increased 
many fold under almost every heading. 

4. Increase in thickness of the leaf and of its cuticle. 
Many leaves are tough and leathery (Ericaceae, Empetrum) ; 
or have thick, strong cuticle (grasses and sedges) ; or develop 
a waxy, resinous, or varnished coating on the under side 
or on both (Andromeda, Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, Pyrola, 
some Salices, evergreens). 

5. Development of water-storing cells in stem or leaves, 
the latter becoming thick and succulent. This is not of 
very common occurrence. It is found, however, for ex- 
ample, in saxifrages, Sedum, and Sphagnum. 

6. Protection of the stomata from the influences that 
tend to cause evaporation through them. This may be 
secured by (1) turning away the under side o° the leaf from 
sun and wind, as in the pinnately divided leaves men- 
tioned already ; (2) sinking the stomata in the leaf-surface 
(Andromeda, Empetrum) ; (3) covering the under side of 
the leaf and sometimes also its upper side and the stem with 
a protecting layer of hairs or tomentum, which may vary 
greatly in length and thickness, from a mere silvery or 



400 LABRADOR 

bronzed dust, or a short, thick fuzz, or tomentum, to a felted 
growth of longer hairs (most Ericacece and Salices, Draba, 
3ome Potentillce, Cerastium, Dryas, Papaver, Antennaria, 
ami many others. 

7. Development of a tendency to grow a thick rosette 
of leaves at the base (Arabis, Draba, Antennaria, Lychnis, 
Pinguicula, many saxifrages), or to mass themselves in 
close, thick clumps or cushions (Diapensia, Silene, Sedum, 
saxifrages). These tendencies are similar to the one al- 
ready mentioned of crowding the leaves closely together 
on the stem. They may develop in species which in more 
favourable locations grow apart from one another, and 
have their leaves more evenly distributed along the stem. 

8. An occasional tendency, in case of difficulty in absorb- 
ing nutriment from the soil, to develop devices for trapping 
and absorbing insects. Insects are not numerous in Lab- 
rador, with the exception of mosquitoes and flies, but a few 
plants there are partially carnivorous (Drosera, Pinguicula, 
Sarracenia). They appear to be confined almost wholly 
to the marshes of the more southerly part of the country. 

9. While physiological dryness is extremely unfavourable 
to vegetable growth, and necessitates special devices for the 
absorption and conservation of moisture, it is, on the other 
hand, very, favourable to the reproductive functions. Ac- 
cordingly, the number of flowers is large, and appears the 
larger on account of the crowding of all varieties into one 
short season, and by contrast with the lack of luxuriance 
in vegetative shoots and foliage. Many of the flowers are 
large and brilliant in colouring, and nowhere is there any 
lack of them in abundance, unless in situations most severely 
open to the winds or destitute of soil. 



THE FLORA 401 

Such are the main characteristics of xerophytes. They 
constitute the great bulk of the flora of Labrador, since 
almost all its physical conditions — bog, sea-shore, thin 
soil, cold ground, drying winds — are such as to exert a 
xerophilous influence. Hygrophytes (reaching their ex- 
treme in Aquatics), adapted to conditions of easily avail- 
able moisture, and Tropophytes, adapted to alternating 
seasons of moisture and of dryness, are of much rarer 
occurrence. The former are characterized by weakly 
developed roots, more luxuriant vegetal growth, great 
expansion of the transpiring surfaces. Tropophytes are 
hygrophilous during the summer, the season of mois- 
ture, and xerophilous during the winter, which is physio- 
logically dry. They secure this change either by shed- 
ding their hygrophilous leaves; or by dying down to the 
ground as a whole; or, as in evergreens, by developing 
shoots which are hygrophilous only when young, turning 
xerophilous as they mature. 

Thus a relative lack of available moisture is one of the 
chief features determining the general appearance of the 
vegetable covering of the Labrador landscape. Other 
factors, such as cold, wind, and physical nature of the soil, 
derive their influence mainly from their tendency to limit 
the supply of available water, or to increase transpiration. 
Each of them, however, has some direct influence besides. 
Thus it is said that cold tends to make leaves broader and 
shorter, with bent margins and loss of irregularity in mar- 
gin (mosses, Ericacece), and is favourable to the develop- 
ment of sexual organs ; though the real influence even here 
may be perhaps not cold directly, but dryness and the short- 
ness of the season of growth. Wind not only favours trans- 
2d 



402 LABRADOR 

piration, but directly increases the tendency to low, shrubby 
growth, and favours anemophilous adaptations (i.e. those 
using the agency of the wind) for pollination and for dis- 
semination of fruits. Differences in the nature of the soil in 
Labrador would seem to be not great, and to derive their 
importance mainly from their ability to conserve moisture, 
free from admixture with growth-hindering acids and salts. 

There are, however, some further direct and important 
influences. One of them, not often mentioned but very 
evident, is the scarcity of insects that aid in pollination. 
The proportion of flowers that are anemophilous, or wind 
fertilized, as compared with those that solicit insect aid, 
is considerable, as might be anticipated from the fact that 
flower-haunting insects are rare. Yet there are many 
flowers of the latter type, though mainly of species that do 
not absolutely depend upon insects for the fertility of their 
seeds. 

Another positive influence is the relatively protracted 
illumination during the period of growth. This, like many 
other influences operative here, has been shown to have a 
tendency to diminish herbaceous growth, affecting the size 
both of the plant and of its leaves; and to favour repro- 
duction. The devices that protect against too great trans- 
piration often serve at the same time to secure protection 
against excessive and prolonged illumination. 

Finally, the shortness of the season of growth is of large 
importance. It is this which forces a large proportion of 
the plants that are to survive under the conditions which 
Labrador supplies, to develop in a previous season the em- 
bryonic preparations for the leaves and flowers that are 
to appear the following summer. Hence* is derived the 



THE FLORA 403 

magical rapidity of appearance of vegetation and of flowers, 
almost coincident with the disappearance of the snows. 
Hardly does the ground become clear of snow before 
flowers are there in its place. Not only is there barely 
any transition between winter and spring, but all kinds of 
flowers follow upon one another so quickly that spring, sum- 
mer, and autumn are all rolled into one quickly coming and 
quickly disappearing, brief, brilliant, and glorious summer 
season. This is the main factor that introduces a difference 
into the floral character of different latitudes. In all of 
them the same conditions are present otherwise, — the ex- 
posure to winds, the coldness of the soil, and other influences 
that conduce to physiological dryness, — but the season 
grows shorter as one advances farther north, and high 
latitude will thus conserve more and more the plants of 
the spring-blooming type, that prepare their blossoms and 
growths a season beforehand, and tend to exterminate 
those that come more slowly to maturity. In some places 
plants relatively unfitted will survive, but will lose some 
of their characteristics as the season of growth becomes 
shorter. Thus, Rubus Chamoemorus and Rubus arcticus, 
which are abundant and fertile in Newfoundland, the writer 
found to be much more rarely fertile in Labrador and to 
increase in rarity toward its northern extreme; and it is 
said that R. Chamcemorus survives, but is without flowers, 
at its most northern station. In some cases the length of 
the season suffices for flowers, but not for fruits and seeds. 
In such cases it would seem to be, not the temperature 
itself, as Schimper puts it, but the length of time during 
which the warmer temperatures persist, that determines 
the surviving species and their reproductiveness. 



404 LABRADOR 

All of these influences together, the most important of 
which are evidently the amount of available moisture and 
the length of the season of temperatures favourable to 
growth, determine the characteristics of vegetation on the 
coast of Labrador. The prominent features that result 
have most of them been already described. A few others, 
however, still remain to be considered. One of them is 
the great variability of the flowers. I observed it myself 
markedly in several species. In Rubus Chamcemorus and 
R. arcticus, the petals and calyx lobes ranged in number 
almost indiscriminately between four and six ; and in the 
former the ends of the calyx lobes were sometimes single- 
pointed and sometimes toothed, the number of teeth vary- 
ing, and its leaves were often spotted or even entirely 
coloured with deep purple. In Ledum palustre, var. dilata- 
tum, flowers of the same cluster showed no constancy in the 
number of their stamens, any number from five to eleven 
being present. Sedum Rhodiola is very variable. In 
flowers of the same plant I found petals ranging in number 
from three to seven, sepals from three to five, scales from 
two to four, stamens from five to thirteen, and pistils from 
two to nine. In Cornus Canadensis, I noticed one variety 
with six upper leaves arranged in a whorl, with each side 
of the four-sided stem grooved, and with greenish white 
flowers; another with three pairs of opposite leaves, only 
two of the sides grooved, and flowers dark purple or maroon, 
both calyx and corolla; and a third with characteristics 
between these two. Pedicularis also, to my inexpert bo- 
tanical eye, seemed to present a greater variability than 
could be accounted for by the number of already reported 
species. 



THE FLORA 405 

Of fruits, the most common are such as depend on dis- 
semination by wind or by birds and other animals. A few- 
species depend on other methods mainly, as in case of the 
large easily floating bladders or pods of Oxytropis and 
other legumes, or of large seeds that rarely find their way 
far from the parent plant. But the families best repre- 
sented in individuals, and largely also in species, are such 
as bear small berries (Ericaceae, Empetrum) attractive to 
animals, or numerous small light seeds, or spores, easily 
spread abroad by the wind (mosses, grasses, Cruciferce, 
Caryophyllacece, Compositce) . 

The regions of Arctic vegetation possess relatively fewer 
species and varieties than more favoured localities, and most 
of these are the same as those growing in the colder tem- 
perate zones. As Hooker * points out, uniformity in 
physical characters and absence of those changing con- 
ditions which we assume to be stimulants to variation 
(different combinations of conditions of heat, light, mois- 
ture, and mineral characters) give uniformity in vegetation. 
Hooker gives the total number of flowering species in 
Arctic Europe as 616, in Arctic East America as 379, in 
Greenland as 207. On the other hand, he estimates that 
5800 species exist in temperate Australia. Gray's New 
Manual of Botany (7th ed., 1908) enumerates about 
4000 species of flowering plants and ferns, belonging 
to over 150 families, from the central and northeastern 
United States and Canada. But in Greenland, according 
to Schimper, there are only 386 species of vascular plants, 
belonging to 53 families. Labrador shows similarly a 

1 Joseph D. Hooker, Distribution of Arctic Plants. Trans. Linnean 
Society, 1862, Vol. XXIII, p. 251. 



406 LABRADOR 

relatively low number of species and families. It is im- 
possible to give exact figures. We have already noticed 
both that all these northern lands are still insufficiently 
explored, and that the nomenclature of their known plants 
needs careful revision. The figures quoted from Hooker 
and Schimper cannot be regarded as accurate. Yet with 
all the revision to which they may be subject, the large 
difference existing between Arctic and temperate regions 
remains strikingly true, and its degree is probably fairly 
well indicated by the figures given. The writer has at- 
tempted a calculation for Labrador, based on all the reports, 
reliable or otherwise, known to him in January, 1905 ; but 
its results, for the foregoing reasons, must not be regarded 
as very exact. According to it, there occur in Labrador 
not far from 425 species of vascular plants, belonging to 
50 families. In addition to these there are about 300 
species of bryophytes and fungi so far discovered. The 
number of species in the orders best represented is as fol- 
lows: Composite? 36, Ericacece 31, Cruciferce 30, Roseacece 
29, Cyperacece 28, Graminece 27, Caryophyllacece 26, Salica- 
cece 19, Saxifragacece 19, Ranunculacece 19, Scrophulariacece 
14. The number of species in the genera best represented 
is: Car ex 21, Salix 17, Potentilla 11, Saxifraga 11, Draba 
11, Ranunculus 10, Arenaria 9, Epilobium 9, Vaccinium 7, 
Pedicularis 7, Lycopodium 7, Stellaria 6, Poa 6. 

Having now studied the main influences affecting the 
flora of Labrador, and the characteristic features of its 
plants resulting therefrom, we are in a position to consider 
the general appearance of the Labrador landscape near the 
coast, so far as it is determined by vegetable life. It will 
be necessary to distinguish several different regions or 



THE FLORA 407 

typical situations, each with its own peculiar aspect. We 
may conveniently divide these into the areas of forest, of 
sea-shore, and of the tundra, and the latter again into sev- 
eral subdivisions. 

1. The forest region is best described by Low. 1 He says: 

"The southern half of the Labrador Peninsula is included 
in the subarctic forest belt, as described by Professor Ma- 
coun. Nine species of trees may be said to constitute the 
whole arborescent flora of this region. These species 
are : Betula papyrifera Michx., Populus tremuloides Michx., 
Populus balsamifera Linn., Thuya occidentalis Linn., 
Pinus banksiana Lam., Picea alba Link., Picea nigra 
Link., Abies balsamea Marsh, and Larix Americana 
Michx. The distribution of the forest areas and the range 
of the various trees depend on several factors, among 
which may be mentioned, position as regards latitude, 
height above sea-level, distance from sea-coast, and char- 
acter of the soil, all of which are important. The forest 
is continuous over the southern part of the peninsula to 
between latitudes 52° and 54°, the only exceptions being 
the summits of rocky hills and the outer islands of the At- 
lantic coast. To the northward of latitude 53°, the higher 
hills are treeless and the size and number of the barren 
areas rapidly increase. In latitude 55°, more than half the 
country is treeless, woods being only found about the mar- 
gins of small lakes and in the valleys of the rivers. Trees 
also decrease in size, until, on the southern shores of Un- 
gava Bay, they disappear altogether. . . . The tree line 
skirts the southern shore of Ungava Bay and comes close 
to the mouth of the George River, from which it turns 
south-southeast, skirting the western foot-hills of the At- 
lantic coast range, which is quite treeless, southward to 
the neighbourhood of Hebron, in latitude 58°, where trees 

1 A. P. Low, Report on Explorations in the Labrador Peninsula, 
Ann. Rep. Geol. Survey of Canada, 1896, Part L, Vol. VIII, pp. 30 ff. 



408 LABRADOR 

are again found in protected valleys at the heads of 
the inner bays of the coast. At Davis Inlet, in latitude 
56°, trees grow on the coast and high up on the hills, the 
barren grounds being confined to the islands and head- 
lands, which remain treeless to the southward of the mouth 
of Hamilton Inlet. These barren islands and bare head- 
lands of the outer coast, along with the small size of the 
trees on the lowlands, have caused a false impression to be 
held regarding much of the Atlantic coast, which from 
Hamilton Inlet southward is well timbered about the 
heads of the larger bays and on lowlands of the small 
river- valleys. . . . Picea nigra is the most abundant 
tree of Labrador and probably constitutes over ninety 
per cent of the forest. . . . Larix Americana is probably 
the hardiest tree of the subarctic forest belt; it grows 
everywhere throughout the Labrador Peninsula, and is 
probably next in abundance to the black spruce. . . . 
Throughout the forest belt, the lowlands fringing the 
streams and lakes are covered with thickets of willows 
and alders. As the semi-barrens are approached, the 
areas covered by these shrubs become more extensive, 
and they not only form wide margins along the rivers and 
shores of the lakes, but with dwarf birches occupy much of 
the open glades. The willows and birches grow on the 
sides of the hills, above the tree line, where they form low 
thickets exceedingly difficult to pass through. Beyond 
the limits of the true forest, similar thickets of Arctic 
willows and birches are found on the low grounds, but on 
the more elevated lands they grow only a few inches above 
the surface. In the southern region, the undergrowth 
in the wooded areas is chiefly Labrador tea {Ledum latifo- 
lium) and laurel (Kalmia glauca), which grow in tangled 
masses, from two to four feet high, and are very difficult to 
travel through. In the semi-barrens this undergrowth 
dies out, and travel across country is much easier in conse- 
quence. In the southern regions the ground is usually 



THE FLORA 409 

covered to a considerable depth with sphagnum, which 
northward of 51° is gradually replaced by the white lichens 
or reindeer mosses (Cladonia), which grow freely every- 
where throughout the semi-barren and barren regions." 

The traveller along the coast, who penetrates but a short 
distance into the interior, will find little evidence of this 
forest area, except in sheltered places at the heads of bays. 
Of the trees and shrubs mentioned by Low, I found only 
Abies (no farther north than Hamilton Inlet), Larix, Picea, 

— and none of these evergreens were seen north of Hebron, 

— and, mainly in dwarf forms, Alnus, Betula, and Salix. 
Nowhere did I find thickets of undergrowth that offered 
any obstacle to travel. 

2. The most common plants characteristic of the sea- 
shore are seaside sandwort (Arenaria peploides), sea- 
lungwort or ice-plant (Mertensia maritima) , Potentilla 
anserina and tridentata, a few large Umbelliferce (Ccelopleu- 
rum actceifolium, Conioselinum Canadense, Ligusticum 
Scoticum), and one or two species of Plantago. Iris and 
Lathyrus maritimus also are not unusual in the more south- 
erly regions. Besides these, almost all of the more common 
plants of the tundra may occur close to the sea-shore. On 
sandy places, which are rather rare in Labrador, and which 
are exposed preeminently to the effect of high winds and 
scanty water, the number is more limited. For example, 
on one low sand-dune which I studied at Pottle's Cove, 
close by the entrance to Hamilton Inlet, in latitude 54°, 
I found only the plants enumerated below, though many 
others grew on the rocky heights in the near vicinity. The 
more abundant are italicized, the rest were rarer. 

a. In the more exposed situations exclusively: Arctos- 



410 LABRADOR 

taphylos alpina, Betula glandulosa, Empetrum nigrum, 
Abies balsamea, Juniperus communis, Picea nigra, Boletus. 

b. In the more sunny and protected situations exclu- 
sively : Rubus arcticus, Potentilla tridentata, Taraxacum, 
Polyganum viviparum. 

c. In both, but mainly in the more exposed : Cerastium 
alpinum, Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, var. minus, Rhinanthus 
Crista-galli, Salix Brownii. 

d. In both, but mainly in the more protected: Draba 
incana, Ccelopleurum actseifolium, Cornus Canadensis, 
Achillea millefolium, Solidago macrophylla, a fine thin 
unknown grass. 

e. In both about equally: Stellaria longipes, Lathy rus 
maritimus, Sedum Rhodiola, Elymus arenaria, Poa pra- 
tensis, var. domestica, Barbula ruralis, Brachythecium, 
Hylocomium splendens. 

At Ford Harbour, a little farther north (56°), the follow- 
ing additional species (some but not all of the above being 
present also) were found in a similar situation: Arenaria 
Gro3nlandica, Silene acaulis, Astragalus alpinus, Oxytropis, 
Saxifraga Groenlandica, Epilobium latifolium, E. spicatum, 
Antennaria, Solidago multiradiata, var. scopularum, Tarax- 
acum officinale, var. palustre, Pyrola grandiflora, Vacci- 
nium uliginosum, Polyganum Islandicum, Salix herbacea, 
S. Uva-ursi, Polytricum commune, Lycoperdon, Festuca 
rubra, Hierochloe alpina, Car ex rigida. 

3. The open country uncovered by forest, whose highest 
growths are low shrubs or shrubby, stunted forms of trees, 
and which are more or less continuously carpeted with 
Arctic plants of many kinds, is called the tundra. It is 
the formation that will be most often met with by the voy- 



THE FLORA 411 

ager along the coast; and since Labrador, as at present 
geographically limited, and as it must always be known to 
the great majority of visitors, is but little more than a 
coast-line, the tundra is the characteristic Labrador for- 
mation. " Beyond the last stunted trees," says Schimpeiy 
a so far as ice does not cover the ground, the frigid desert, 
or tundra, almost alone dominates Arctic mainlands and 
islands. Only in the less cold and therefore chiefly southern 
tracts in the Arctic zone, in more favourable localities a few 
less insignificant formations exist; for instance, willow- 
bushes and small meadows on river-banks and in fiords, or 
even formations of dwarf shrubs, which consist of a denser 
growth of the same evergreen, small-leaved, shrubby species 
as appear singly in the tundra between mosses and lichens. 
Dwarfed growth, a distinctly xerophilous character, the 
predominance of mosses and lichens, the incomplete cover- 
ing of the ground, — these features are everywhere charac- 
teristic of the tundra. ... In the less cold tundra dis- 
tricts, more soil is occupied by vegetation than unoccupied ; 
even wide tracts can have a continuous carpet of lichens. 
Where the climate is most rigorous, the vegetation forms 
only widely separated patches on the bare, usually stony 
soil." 

Conditions in Labrador are such as to make possible the 
close continuous growth almost everywhere. It is inter- 
rupted only by the occasional intrusion of unfavourable or 
improved surroundings. These are of four types: the 
summits of the higher mountains; protruding areas of 
sparsely covered rocks and gravels ; collections of water in 

1 A. F. W. Schimper, Plant Geography upon a Physiological Basis. 
p. 685. Oxford, 1904. 



412 LABRADOR 

low depressions, forming moors ; and well-watered, sunny 
slopes. The first three of these are emphasized forms of 
the tundra; the last departs from the tundra type, form- 
ing oases in it. 

(a) The alpine conditions of the higher mountains, which 
are confined almost wholly to the northern half of the 
country, are unfavourable to any form of life. The summits 
consist of broken masses of rock, a Felsenmeer of rough and 
continuous boulders of various size. Among these, only 
scattered clumps of struggling plants can find footing and 
the essential conditions for living. The number of indi- 
viduals, even among the mosses and lichens, is small, and 
the species are few. On one summit (Mt. Faunce, 4400 feet, 
latitude 59°) I found above 3300 feet only the following: 
Cerastium alpinum, Draba fladnitzensis, Saxifraga ccespitosa, 
S. rivularis, S. nivalis, Papaver nudicaule, Sedum ?, Luzula 
confusa, mosses {Andrecea petrophila, Bryumf, Pogonatum 
alpinum or urnigerum, P. capillare, Racomitrium lanugino- 
sum), and lichens (Alectoria diver gens, A. nigricans, Cetraria 
arctica, C. cuculata, Sphcerophoron coralloides, Stereocaulon 
denudatum, S. tomentosum, Theloschistes polycarpus, Umbili- 
caria proboscidea) . 

(6) On protruding rocks but few plants grow, in low, flat, 
spreading cushions. Areas of gravel are also but little 
hospitable to plants, and their covering is consequently 
scanty. The plants that find it possible to survive there 
are to some extent identical with those already described 
as growing well in sand. They are pioneers among plants, 
such as can take root and nourish themselves on the bare 
rock-grains and moisture; and their decay makes richer 
soil for others to grow in. The species of most common 



THE FLORA 413 

occurrence which I found in such situations are : Oxytropis 
campestris (rare), Arctostaphylos alpina, Loiseleuria pro- 
cumbens (rare), Vaccinium uliginosum, V. Vitis-Idcm, var. 
minus, Diapensia Lapponica (growing in little rounded 
mounds on its own previous growth, very branchy, showing 
yearly additions outward and upward, — one specimen I 
examined was three inches in diameter and one and a half 
inches high in the centre) ; willows, Empetrum nigrum, Carex 
rigida (rare), Festuca brevifolia (rare); three mosses (Di- 
cranum, Polytricum strictum, Racomitrium lanuginosum) , 
and a lichen (Umbilicaria) . Dead roots and branches, 
especially of the willows and Ericaceae, were frequent, and 
on them grew other varieties of moss. Labrador tea and 
grasses flourished on the edges of these bare patches, where 
some soil had already been formed. 

(c) " Shallow depressions of the tundra, where the water 
of melted snow and ice accumulates in the soil, become 
swamps in the form of tundra-moor, and there a scanty peat 
bears a thin layer of sphagnum with a few small phanero- 
gams. Such places correspond physically but not physi- 
ologically to the oases of the dry desert" (Schimper). 
The moor presents many features that are unfavourable to 
the life of plants. Humous acids are abundant and pre- 
vent the easy absorption of moisture; mineral substances 
are hard to obtain, "owing to the great distance of the vege- 
tation from the mineral substratum and to the absorptive 
influence of humus, rendering it difficult for the plants to 
obtain soluble salts"; nitrogen is abundant, but in such 
form that the moor is among the poorest of soils in easily 
assimilable nitrogenous substances. Sphagnum is the 
characteristic and most abundant plant in such situations. 



414 LABBADOB 

" Its spongy, water-absorbing cushions," which " keep even 
the highest parts of the moor permanently saturated with 
water. . . . gradually grow in height, while the lower parts 
pass over into sphagnum peat " (Schimper). The following 
list of other plants growing in moors is that given by 
Schimper, with those of known occurrence in Labrador 
italicized. Some are characteristic of high-moor: Viola 
palustris, Vaccinium oxycoccus, Andromeda polifolia, Be- 
tula nana. Others are preeminently meadow-moor species : 
Epilobium palustre, E. tetragonum, Senecio aquaticus, 
S. paludosus, Gentiana pneumonanthe, several species 
of Carex. Many others that are essentially moor plants 
occur also in dry stations without peat: Vaccinium 
Vitis-Idcea; or on meadow moors: Drosera rotundifolia, 
Comarum palustre, Pedicularis palustris, Salix repens, 
species of Eriophorum, many species of Carex. Many 
moor plants compensate for their disadvantages by be- 
coming carnivorous: Drosera, Pinguicula vulgaris, Sar- 
racenia purpurea. 

(d) By far the most favourable and fertile situations in 
the whole country are the sunny slopes, exposed to the 
south, which are abundantly fed by Water from melting 
snow-drifts, on which the water, not becoming stagnant, 
has no opportunity to accumulate humous acids. Schimper 
describes them thus : — 

" The physiological analogues in the tundras of the desert 
oasis are Heat-oases — sunny slopes protected from the 
drying winds — upon which the sunbeams fall almost per- 
pendicularly, and thus warm the water in the soil so that 
plants can obtain it in actual abundance. Such stations 
frequently resemble the flower-beds of a garden. Accord- 
ing to Nathorst : — 



THE FLORA 415 

'" ' The plants of the slopes are in many respects the most 
interesting. The majority of them occur as strongly 
developed individuals, which here appear to thrive per- 
fectly, and apparently can ripen their seeds annually. 
This naturally is true of the good localities, namely, of the 
slopes that soon become free from snow. Here one has an 
opportunity of being able to observe the remarkable in- 
fluence of the sun's rays. Slopes, that a short time before 
were covered with snow, a few days later are adorned with 
several flowers ; the development of these can proceed so 
rapidly that one soon finds fruit as well, as in the case of 
Draba. Here one sees sometimes quite blue mats of Pole- 
monium pulchellum, or red ones of Saxifraga oppositifolia, 
with a varied mixture of other tints, yellow, white, green. 
. . . When the plants of the slopes occur in the plains, 
they are not usually so well developed as on the slopes, but 
the difference in this respect is much greater in some 
plants than in others.' " 

The plants growing on these slopes are for the most part 
more flourishing individuals of the same species that are 
found on the surrounding tundra. I myself noticed only 
a few that seemed confined to these or similar situations : 
Ranunculus pygmceus, R. hyperboreus, Linncea borealis, 
Gentiana nivalis. Many others might probably yet be 
discovered by careful attention to the influence of this 
particular situation. 

Such aspects of the vegetable growths of Labrador as 
have thus far been described may be considered as excep- 
tional. The predominant form of vegetation on or near 
the coast is that of the true tundra itself. Its appear- 
ance as it occurs throughout Labrador I cannot better 
describe than in words which I have already used : 1 — 

1 Report of the Brown-Harvard Expedition to Labrador, Geo- 
graphical Society, Philadelphia, 1902, pp. 129 ff., 168 ff. 



416 LABRADOR 

"The interior is said to be well wooded and far from 
barren, even almost to the northern extremity. But near 
the coast one rarely sees trees of any notable size. At 
Hopedale and Nain there are small groves near the mission 
stations ; but elsewhere we met them only deep in the bays 
and in sheltered valleys a considerable distance — five or 
ten miles at least — inland. Thus, when not entirely 
lacking, they form an unobtrusive feature in the usual 
landscape. The low vegetation that predominates clothes 
the country with a close green mantle, but leaves its shape 
and natural outline unconcealed. Inorganic nature reveals 
herself in her own primeval character, leaving all the 
strength and charm and variety that she can assume naked 
to observation. There is little of softness, little of the 
attraction that vigorous organic life can add ; though the 
green of the low plants, the grays, reds, and browns of 
mosses and lichens, the blues and whites and pinks and 
yellows of the flowers, add a suggestion of this, yet in a way 
that never interferes with the stern grandeur of the lifeless 
masses. 

"The more northern landscapes differ from those thus 
far described mainly in the facts that the greater heights 
attained lead to grander impressions of massiveness and 
strength, and involve greater ruggedness and variety of 
form ; and that the softening influences of soil, water, and 
vegetation are present to a far less degree. . . . Plant 
life is still abundant on the lower levels, but finds little 
hospitality on the bleak higher slopes. . . . 

"The great mass of the vegetation of Labrador consists 
of low forms. It grows so thickly and vigorously in the 
thin soil, however, that the country never gives the impres- 
sion of being lifeless and barren. In the far south, es- 
pecially on moist lowlands, sphagnum is often a prevailing 
growth. But aside from its rather rare supremacy, almost 
everywhere we went we found the curlewberry (Empetrum 
nigrum) and the so-called caribou-moss (Cladonia, really a 



THE FLORA 417 

white lichen) together forming an almost continuous green 
and gray sward, touched with red in the autumn. The 
berries of the curlew are exceedingly numerous, and those 
of the previous season still cling thickly to the vine among 
the green new ones, and even until the latter begin to ripen 
in the middle of August. In the midst of this continuous 
curlew and moss grow occasional clumps of grasses of many 
kinds, and a great variety of flowering plants. Perhaps 
the most common of the latter are the Ericacece. Some of 
them are berry-bearing, with inconspicuous flowers, par- 
ticularly the blueberry (Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum and 
V. uliginosum), the mountain cranberry (V. Vitis-Idcea), 
and the bearberry (Arctostaphylos alpina). Others have 
more prominent flowers, such as the omnipresent Labrador 
tea (Ledum), together with the somewhat less universal 
Loiseleuria and Bryanthus. These are all exceedingly 
abundant in the southern half of the peninsula, but extend 
variously far to the north. The white clusters of the 
Ledum and the purple umbels of the Bryanthus are very 
conspicuous. In the autumn, the red-turning leaves of the 
Arctostaphylos are the most attractive of the season's 
colourings. There is also a large number of other plants 
that are constantly met with, though few of them are so 
nearly omnipresent and continuous as are most of those 
already mentioned. The bake-apple, or cloudberry (Rubus 
Chamcemorus) grows thickly as far north as Hebron, but 
very thinly beyond. We could find but very few of its ripe 
berries in Labrador, though in Newfoundland they seem 
to be common. Associated with its single white flowers 
are frequently seen the showy, rose-coloured ones of the 
Arctic raspberry (Rubus arcticus) . This also, so far as our 
experience could determine, had about the same limits and 
was equally rare in fruit . Bunch-berry (Cornus Canadensis) 
is likewise very common, especially in the south, and grows 
in thick groups. Dense tufts of the white-flowered Dia- 
pensia Lapponica and of the beautiful mosslike pink 

2e 



418 LABBADOB 

Silene acaulis greet the eye continually. Astragalus and 
Oxytropis, Dryas, a great variety of saxifrages, Sedum, 
Peclicularis, the violetlike Pinguicula, and many inconspic- 
uous Cruciferce and Caryophyllacex complete the list of 
forms more universally present in the early part of the 
season. 

" After the beginning of August, when we had reached 
a higher latitude, the character of the vegetation changed 
considerably. Caribou-moss, curlewberry, blueberry, and 
Arctostaphylos still remained the most continuous growths. 
But the flowers began to change to more autumnal forms. 
The Arctic goldenrod (Solidago Virga-aurea and S. macro- 
phylla) appeared abundantly. The large showy pink 
flowers of the Epilobium and the thick pink heads of 
Lychnis were very prominent. Yellow Arnica alpina and 
delicate blue harebells (Campanula) were common. A 
yellow poppy (Papaver nudicaule), with early deciduous 
petals, was not infrequent on the hilltops. A strikingly 
beautiful flower, though a rare one, was the small twin- 
flower (Linn&a borealis) . Fungi, including Boleti, Russulce, 
and various agarics, also became very abundant toward 
the close of the summer ; they were fairly numerous in the 
north, and the moist woods about Nain and Hopedale were 
full of them." 

Thus far we have considered what are the main types and 
characteristics of the plant forms that occur in Labrador 
and the causes that make these predominant; and what 
are the main features and less frequent varieties of its 
landscape, in so far as they are supplied by its floral cover- 
ing. If now we consider the affinities of the plants of this 
region with those in other parts of the world, a number of 
curious and unexpected facts present themselves. Who, 
for instance, would anticipate that the northern parts of 
America possess many more plants like those of Arctic 



THE FLORA 419 

Europe than Greenland does? Or that there are many 
plants here identical with those growing on the southern 
slopes of the Alps, which are altogether lacking in northern 
Europe ? Or, still more strangely, that one must seek in 
the Arctic regions of America, and not in Europe, for the 
closest resemblances to the plants that flourished in the 
far distant Miocene age in central Europe? Yet so we 
are assured by competent authorities. To these facts we 
may add the following statements from Hooker : — 

The polar regions have relatively fewer species and vari- 
eties than have other regions. The flora of all its parts is 
largely identical or closely similar, but is unequally dis- 
tributed. Of all Arctic regions, Greenland exhibits the 
greatest poverty in number of species. Many Scandina- 
vian plants have found their way westward to Greenland, 
but have stopped short on its west coast, without crossing 
to America; many American types terminate as abruptly 
on the west coast of Baffin's Bay, not crossing to Green- 
land and Europe; Greenland contains actually much fewer 
species of European plants than have found their way 
eastwards from Lapland by Asia into Western and Eastern 
Arctic America; the Scandinavian vegetation has in every 
longitude migrated across the tropics of Asia and America, 
while plants typical of these continents which have found 
their way into the Arctic regions have remained restricted 
to their own meridians. 

These facts, at first seemingly inexplicable, and actually 
so under existing conditions of sea, land, and temperature, 
naturally have their explanation in the evolutionary and 
geological history of our globe. Most of them will be 
understood clearly from the following account given by 



420 LABRADOR 

Hooker, 1 which in all essential points agrees with the the- 
ories advanced in the latest edition (10th) of the Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica: — 

"It appears to me difficult to account for these facts, 
unless we admit Mr. Darwin's hypotheses, first, that the 
existing Scandinavian flora is of great antiquity, and that 
previous to the glacial epoch it was more uniformly dis- 
tributed over the polar zone than it is now ; secondly, that 
during the advent of the glacial period this Scandinavian 
vegetation was driven southward in every longitude, and 
even across the tropics into the south temperate zone; 
and that on the succeeding warmth of the present epoch, 
those species that survived both ascended the mountains 
of the warmer zones, and also returned northward, accom- 
panied by aborigines of the countries they had invaded 
during their southern migration. ... If it be granted 
that the polar area was once occupied by the Scandinavian 
flora, and that the cold of the glacial epoch did drive this 
vegetation southwards, it is evident that the Greenland 
individuals, from being confined to a peninsula, would 
be exposed to very different conditions to those of the 
great continents. In Greenland many species would, as 
it were, be driven into the sea, that is, exterminated; 
and the survivors would be confined to the southern por- 
tion of the peninsula, and not being there brought into 
competition with other types, there could be no struggle 
for life amongst their progeny, and consequently no selec- 
tion of better-adapted varieties. On the return of heat, 
these survivors would simply travel northwards, unaccom- 
panied by the plants of any other country. In Arctic Amer- 
ica and Asia, on the other hand, where there was a free 
southern extension and dilatation of land for the same 
Scandinavian plants to occupy, these would multiply 
enormously in individuals, branching off into varieties and 

1 Distribution of Arctic Plants, pp. 253 f. 



THE FLORA 421 

subspecies, and occupy a larger area the farther south they 
were driven. . . . Hence, on the return of warmth, many 
more Scandinavian species would return to Arctic America 
and Asia than survived in Greenland; some would be 
changed in form, because only the favoured varieties could 
have survived the struggle." 

The summer visitor to Labrador, whether scientist or 
pleasure-seeker, may naturally be expected to have an 
interest not only in the scientific aspects of its flora, but 
also in the possibilities it presents of making additions to 
his food-supplies. These are meagre, but, so far as they go, 
of a very satisfactory nature. Garden vegetables, berry- 
bearing plants, and fungi nearly exhaust the list of com- 
monly known plants that is available for this purpose. 
The former are raised sparingly in the fishing villages of 
the southern portion of the coast, and by the missionaries 
at the Moravian stations as far north as Nain. Edible 
berries are exceedingly abundant, especially blueberries, 
Arctic cranberries, and curlewberries. The last two kinds 
require cooking to make them palatable, but then are de- 
licious. The cloudberry, or bake-apple (Rubus Chamcemo- 
rus) is abundant in some few parts of the country, and is 
much esteemed by the natives. Raspberries also are found 
in some localities. 

The fungi of Labrador have as yet received but little 
study. The most common kinds, both of which are easily 
identified by any one with a very slight knowledge of fungi, 
are apparently various species of Boletus and of Russula. 
These grow in considerable numbers almost everywhere. 
Several other kinds of fungi are obtainable in smaller 
quantities. They need much further investigation, and 



422 LABRADOR 

their study offers a problem for further research, attractive 
for both economic and scientific reasons. 

Mention may also well be made of certain growths which, 
while not ordinarily attractive as foods, may yet serve in 
emergency to sustain life for an indefinite period. A list 
and description of a number of such " emergency foods," 
easily available at any season of the year, has recently 
been given by Ernest Thompson-Seton (Country Life in 
America, September, 1904, Vol. VI, p. 438). After enu- 
merating several small forms of animal life that may serve 
in this way, he describes and pictures the plants. Among 
them are several abundant lichens (Cetraria or Iceland moss, 
Cladonia or reindeer moss, Umbilicaria or rock-tripe), 
the outer and inner (but not the middle) bark and the 
buds of aspen (Populus tremuloides) , the shoots of spruce 
and tamarack, the inner bark of willows and birch. Most of 
these need to be well dried at first, and then either roasted 
or boiled for a long time. It is evident that a knowledge 
of these plants and of their nutritious qualities might on 
occasion prove of the utmost value to the traveller in these 
regions. The party of Sir John Franklin lived almost ex- 
clusively on such diet for over three months. " Lowly in 
the scale of diet as they are in the scale of organic nature," 
says Mr. Seton, "the rock-tripes are yet reliable friends of 
man, and no one should travel in these vast inhospitable 
regions without a knowledge of their appearance, their 
qualities, and the best methods of preparing them for 
human food." 1 

1 Some of the edible plants here mentioned are of very common 
occurrence in all these northern lands. The list here mentioned could 
doubtless be largely extended. 



THE FLORA 423 

A great deal of work is yet to be done by careful ob- 
servers before the full nature of the Labrador flora can be 
satisfactorily known. As yet only its more superficial as- 
pects have been reported. Hardly any attempt has been 
made to determine the influence of different types of situ- 
ations, and to enumerate the plants that flourish in each. 
It is but a rough preliminary survey that has thus far been 
accomplished. There must, moreover, still remain many 
species of plants undiscovered. Every new visit to the 
country results in fresh finds. A large number of species 
has been found in near-by regions as yet unknown in Lab- 
rador, but probably occurring there. A striking instance of 
this probability seems to be presented by the Cyperacece. 
According to methods of calculation already explained, 
which cannot be very exact, forty-seven of them seem to 
have been reported from adjacent localities, and only twenty- 
eight from Labrador. Other instances of similar impor- 
tance will probably be found. Especially large rewards 
may probably be expected from further investigations of 
the mosses, lichens, hepatics, and fungi. A considerable 
number ol those brought back by the writer in 1900 seemed 
to be new for that locality, so far as previous records 
showed. 

Labrador is no longer the inaccessible land of mystery 
it was a few years ago. Its marvellous scenery and varied 
charm are sure to attract more and more visitors year by 
year. Many will go for technical study, and will find a 
rich field for its pursuit. Most will be drawn by the love 
of an outdoor life, by the desire for adventure or for ser- 
viceableness in the Mission, by the opportunity for seeing 
and enjoying a strange and fascinating country. It is 



424 LABBADOB 

for these latter mainly that this chapter has been written. 
The more they can understand and observe of the great 
wild garden that, if really seen and intimately known, makes 
impossible any thought of barrenness, the larger will be 
their pleasure. However small the knowledge with which 
he starts, no one need be deterred from attempting to gain 
a larger comprehension of these matters, so significant for 
the correct interpretation of the true nature of a country. 
If these be its features in which he is most interested, he 
will at least add enormously to his own satisfaction and 
insight. By making a carefully selected and well-annotated 
collection of plants, he may also, on submitting it to 
reliable experts, make some extension to the list of re- 
corded varieties and species that occur there. If he will 
prepare himself as well as possible beforehand and then 
make some special study of still unsettled points, such a^ 
the edibility of various plants, the particular features of 
certain especially variable species and of the conditions 
under which they occur, the influence of particular situa- 
tions, soils, and conditions, he may well hope to make 
contributions to new knowledge. Plenty of such oppor- 
tunities are still open to the amateur. In spite of his 
own unfortunate experience in admitting errors into his 
published description, the writer still does not hesitate to 
encourage amateurs in endeavouring to make really new 
additions to knowledge in this far from fully explored 
field. The mistakes of an amateur may well be forgiven 
and gradually corrected, if he does not pretend to be any- 
thing more ; and confession of the difficulties met with by 
one of them may help to eliminate similar troubles in the 
future, and to render only real discoveries liable to pub- 



THE FLORA 425 

lication. To make this more certain, the amateur must 
always know the authorities to whom he may surely 
appeal for final verification, and must leave to the pro- 
fessional and expert botanist all the more delicate questions 
of identification and the critical settlement of problems 
concerning structure, influence, and conditions. 



CHAPTER XVII 

ANIMAL LIFE IN LABRADOR 
By Wilfred T. Grenfell 

The struggle for life among the Labrador mammals is well 
worthy the title. The state of the soil, climate, temperature, 
with the resulting conditions especially of the Flora, make it 
possible for only well-adapted an J vigorous animals to live at 
all. The difficulty of survival is increased by the constant 
warfare among themselves, many having to live by preying 
on the others. The squirrel is never safe from the lynx, 
the caribou from the wolf, the rabbit from the fox. The 
snow betrays every movement, and in winter the weaker 
run a constant risk of extinction. Even our birds force 
upon us the fact that the dire conditions of life induce in 
them no sentimental feelings of mercy. On one occasion my 
retriever brought me too fat auks which he had caught on 
the frozen bay, long after most birds have left us. It was 
Sunday morning, and to spare the prejudices of the people 
I was visiting, I forebore to carry them into the village. 
On the ground, however, the tracks of fox and lynx warned 
me that the birds were not safe. Accordingly I hung 
them high up in a tree. On returning a little later I found 
nothing but bones and feathers — an owl had probably 
visited my cache. Another time, having done the same 
thing with three fat partridges, we caught the robbers 
flagrante delicto. They proved to be two small Canada 
jays. One very cold day, the sea being covered with young 

426 



ANIMAL LIFE IN LABRADOR 427 

ice, I noticed a belated dovekie cheerfully diving after food 
among the slob, while the waters froze to our oars as we 
rowed. His pluck and contentment in such a lonely place 
made us feel very warmly toward him. As we watched he 
rose to wing, apparently to follow his friends to their more 
southern home. He had not risen a hundred yards, how- 
ever, when a hawk swooped on him like lightning from the 
cliff, and returned leisurely to his eyry with the struggling 
little fellow, there to tear to pieces alive our poor little 
friend. 

Moreover, now, man, their main enemy, is increasing in 
numbers. Besides his accumulated experience and his new 
destructive methods and weapons, he is continually en- 
croaching more and more on their territory. Every single 
animal lives in terror of man, yet none ever attacks him if 
there be any other alternative, unless it be his own half-fed 
dogs. All their efforts are directed towards escape. To 
afford themselves protection some of the weaker, such as 
the caribou, hare, partridge, and ermine, change the colour 
of their coat with the seasons. Nearly all grow longer hair 
and put on their best fur against the terrible cold of winter. 
The fat in the skins of the out-of-season fur is due to this 
effort, and is so sure a sign of poaching out of season that 
pelts showing fat on the inside are not allowed by law to be 
sold or to pass customs. Our seals and birds acquire cor- 
responding coats of fat, so that the former will float when 
killed. They are able to enjoy the bitterest weather div- 
ing under the ice — while the birds have energy enough 
stored in that form to enable them to accomplish their long 
journeys to South America, the Antilles, and even to Asia 
and Europe, without needing to stop to replenish their 



428 LABRADOR 

stock. Black bear and woodchuck use this fat as food to 
enable them to sleep through the discomforts of winter. 

Most of the mammals have their special senses developed 
to an extraordinary degree. The wild goose and the eagle 
can both see better than we can even with the aid of a 
telescope, while huge owls prefer the dark for clear vision. 
A wolf or a beaver can tell the scent of an old trail of a 
man who has only passed once, and that hours before. A 
fox will hear the feeble chirrup of a mouse all across a 
marsh. Strangely enough, none of the mammals rely on 
sight for protection. Scent is no use down wind and very 
little over water. Hearing is an exceedingly unreliable 
guide as to direction, while sight would appear to be 
valuable under all circumstances. A seal often loses its 
life through its inability to know what it is looking at. It 
will put its head and shoulders out of water every minute 
to try and make out a man, and will come close up to him. 
I shall never forget my first caribou, and the "buck fever" 
which made me fire nine times at him. I was lying in a 
perfectly open marsh, and the animal, which was looking 
straight at me, simply stood and sniffed the air and stared 
helplessly. The powder was, of course, smokeless. A friend, 
kneeling also in a perfectly exposed marsh, by simply stay- 
ing still, tolled a fox so close to him, that when he eventually 
fired, the shot, going like a bullet, nearly spoiled a valuable 
pelt. But foxes differ — all are not so foolish. A beaver 
will look at you down wind from only a few yards away, 
and yet not distinguish anything unusual. As shy an ani- 
mal as a marten will show no fear so long as you keep still. 
Slow, steady movement or stillness always inspires confi- 
dence. 



ANIMAL LIFE IN LABRADOR 429 

Speed is, of course, one invaluable safeguard to our ani- 
mals, but dogged endurance is nearly always too much for 
them. A wolf cannot catch a caribou on a straight run, nor 
a fox a rabbit, but once they get a really fresh trail they are 
pretty sure to kill. I have seen the tracks of the chase of a 
fox by a lynx. Round and round the lake they went, the 
huge leaps of the lynx giving him an enormous advantage 
over the pitter patter of the fox — which was evidently 
speedier. But we found the trace of the final act : a bit of 
fur and a few tracks of blood. 

None of our animals live very long, except the whales, 
some of which are said to live a thousand years. Judging by 
the immense barnacles which grow upon their skins, it is easy 
to believe it of some of the hoary monsters which the whalers 
tow into our factories. We consider that a fox or a caribou 
of fifteen, or a wolf of twenty years, are in their dotage. I 
remember one old black-beaked gull which has been in cap- 
tivity thirty-two years. Solemnly each year she makes 
half a dozen nests in different places, finally laying three 
unfertilized eggs in one, with the regularity of clockwork. 

The numbers of animals killed by man each year vary 
greatly. Thus in 1910 and 1911 large numbers of foxes 
were killed, while in 1911-1912 scarcely a fox was caught 
and all fur was scarce. The reasons attributed were that 
in 1910 the mice and learnings were very few and the foxes 
had to come to the outer trapping grounds, hunting food 
nearer the land-wash, and their hunger made them readily 
take bait. In 1911 mice were again very plentiful, and 
some foxes certainly went farther inland for them. Some 
were caught, but probably too large a toll of breeders had 
been taken the year previous. 



430 LABRADOR 

Cants occidentalis. — The timber wolf of Labrador seems 
to be deficient in the noble qualities allotted to him else- 
where. I can find no account of his having courage to 
attack even an unarmed man, though on several occasions 
men have been followed by small packs of wolves almost 
to their doors. I heard of one boy who was attacked by a 
wolf, but he fired his gun in its face and ran away without 
waiting to see what happened. It seems certain that they 
kill defenceless animals merely for the pleasure of killing 
them. Settlers have many times described to me how 
they have found carcasses of freshly killed deer within a 
short distance of one another, only the tongues having been 
eaten and the windpipe torn out. This method of killing 
may account for the tongue being eaten, owing to its 
attachment to the larynx. The wolves have frequently 
come out and mixed with the Eskimo dogs, killing and eat- 
ing them. This has been used to their destruction by peg- 
ging out sluts, and so attracting the wolves within range. 
One trapper while tailing his traps noticed that he was 
being followed by three wolves. On his return to the 
spot where he had left a bag of flour he found that the 
wolves had been circling round it, but had been afraid to 
touch it. On stooping to pick it up he heard a growl close 
to him, and a single wolf stood facing him snarling. With 
considerable coolness he stood still and took time to load 
his muzzle-loading gun. The wolf meanwhile was walking 
around. The other two wolves did not show up out of the 
thicket. When he was ready he shot and killed the one 
in sight, whereupon the other two dashed out of the thicket 
and fled. This man has had a very large experience with 
our wild animals. The wolf in question was far advanced in 



ANIMAL LIFE IN LABRADOR 431 

starvation, and only the pangs of hunger gave the poor 
beast the courage to face a man. I have in my collection 
the skull of a large wolf which had killed itself by eating 
sticks. A piece the exact width of the mouth, cut off by 
the two large lateral teeth, had sprung across the mouth 
like a bow, and the pressure on each end had absorbed the 
alveolus of the jaw, so that the stick was right through on 
both sides above the teeth. The pressure had also ab- 
sorbed the bone above it, and eaten a long hole the size of 
the stick through the base of the skull, and so probably in- 
fected the brain. The stick is still in situ in the skull. 

The method by which the wolves destroy the caribou was 
hotly debated some time ago. I append two detailed de- 
scriptions from eye-witnesses. Mr. Flowers of Hamilton 
Inlet, hunting with his brother, noticed a full-grown caribou 
flying at top speed across the barrens. From the hill on 
which they were they watched it through their field glasses, 
and noticed it mount a neighbouring steep ascent at the 
same matchless pace, and then suddenly stop and lie down. 
Very shortly a large timber wolf came flying by. As soon 
as it sighted the caribou it turned off and ran to leeward, 
making a long circle as if afraid to go near. Probably it 
had had experiences before. Soon after two more wolves 
came along, and one of these also started to circle round. 
The other, however, went straight at the deer from behind, 
while its attention was drawn the other way. It ran right 
in under the forelegs and grabbed the deer high in the 
throat. The deer, a fine old stag, reared up on his hind 
legs, the wolf still holding on. The deer then went down 
and tried to knee the wolf to pieces against the hard 
ground. Just at that moment one of the party shot the 



432 LABBABOB 

deer, with the result that all three wolves got safely away. 
The deer would certainly have been killed anyhow. 

In the second case, the deer, a doe, took to the water 
and swam off to a small islet. The wolf, a single one, only 
followed after a long delay, and did not seem very anxious 
for the fight when he first landed. However, when he did 
begin, the deer succeeded in knocking him down three 
times by rising on her hind legs. But the wolf got hold 
by the throat, and the caribou would probably have been 
quickly killed, even if a shot had not at that moment 
ended her life. In other cases I have known them to be 
hamstrung, or disabled, by the wolf biting the small of the 
back. 

Rangifer arcticus, or Rangifer caribou (Caribou). — The 
young are easily tamed and very affectionate. One which 
I had as a companion on our steamer would always bleat 
after me as I left the side in a boat, would follow me where- 
ever I went on the land, and would swim off after me again 
when I left the shore. If it was in the field and heard my 
voice it would at once rush to me, and would stand up on 
its hind legs and batter the palings in its attempts to ac- 
company me when I left. They have also been tamed and 
used for traction in Newfoundland, in isolated instances. 
Only the woodland variety are commonly found in the 
south of Labrador, and these have not noticeably diminished. 
Their paths suggest that for ages they have been there in 
great numbers — just as they still are on the barren lands 
to the west of the Bay. The almost extravagant supply of 
their food which now goes unused in Labrador would insure 
protected herds great abundance and permanence of food. 

Lutra Canadens is (Canada Otter). — These animals are 



ANIMAL LIFE IN LABRADOR 433 

among our most reliable furs. They do not seem to have 
appreciably decreased. They make rude lairs under the 
snow near some open running water. They seem able to 
catch fish whenever they wish to do so, summer or winter, 
but whether they merely outswim, or simply pounce on 
their prey like a hawk, is doubtful. They never seem 
to starve like wolves and foxes, being almost always in 
good condition. No water at all adheres to their coats, 
so, unlike a dog, they appear not to " freeze up." They 
are among our most enduring animals. A friend described 
how he had seen a fox on one occasion sight an otter, and 
at once attack it. The otter, however, turned on his 
assailant and damaged him so badly that he was glad to 
escape with his pelt in a woful condition for the fur market. 
Their characteristic "rub" is so evident on the snow that 
they are easily marked down, and by waiting quietly can 
readily be shot in the water. 

I had a similar story told me of an otter and a lynx. 
The lynx, waiting in hiding, pounced on the otter as he came 
out of a pond with a fish. But the otter gave such a good 
account of himself that the cat fled. 

Ursus Americanus. — The black bear is one of our 
commonest furs. As he is large and his flesh excellent eat- 
ing, he is, unfortunately, always shot at sight, though his 
skin in summer is practically valueless. The meat is like 
dark mutton. He is a most harmless creature, and I can 
get no record of even a mother with her family (generally 
two) having been dangerous to man. A trapper on snow- 
shoes in the spring came on a bear just out of his cave. 
He gave chase, and, owing to the deep, soft snow, the bear 
had no chance of getting away. Seeing that it was fight or 
2f 



434 LABRADOR 

die, the bear attacked, only to learn, however, that against 
modern guns he had no chance. The poor beast's attack 
was entirely due to his inability to avoid death. Apropos 
of caves, the black bear is, of all our mammals, the one 
which looks out most for his personal comfort. With us 
they "cave up" and sleep for about six months to avoid 
the cold of winter. I once purchased a young cub taken 
from its dead mother soon after its birth. When October 
came, we placed a barrel in the bear's run to see if he would 
know how to make a nest, not having had any opportunity 
of a " school of the woods." He took to it, however, with 
apparent zest, and no less efficiently for lack of education. 
He lined the barrel with grass and moss, and padded it all 
tight and solid with his paws, almost as a man would do. 

On one occasion a trapper on his fur path found a con- 
venient hole into a cave under a cliff. He crept in, lighted 
a small lantern which he carried, and, after having his 
supper, lay down to sleep. In the night a noise, as of 
some visitor, awakened him, and he turned up his lantern 
to find a large bear, standing as high as the roof. He 
promptly shot the bear and got outside, where, by waiting, 
he got two others. 

Their fondness for sweets, and especially molasses, occa- 
sionally gets them into trouble. One time a trapper hauled 
over $200 worth of food to one of the huts on his fur path. 
When he came back he found a big hole through the roof 
and most of his food spoilt. He nailed up the hole twice 
as strong and headed up the barrel of molasses. On his 
next visit he found that bears had again got in, broken the 
top of his barrel, and eaten all his molasses. 

These bears also eat fish along the land- wash, as well as 



ANIMAL LIFE IN LABRADOR 435 

berries, and will occasionally catch fish in the ponds and 
pools. Many attempts have been made to keep them as 
pets, and I did succeed in keeping two for quite a long 
period. The general experience is, however, that they re- 
main bears, and are not to be trusted. They have a habit 
of playfully hitting with their paws, and their long nails 
inflict very nasty scratches. I have had more than one 
experience of this. 

Gulo luscus L. — The wolverine is considered by all our 
trappers as the wiliest of our wood folk. He will reach 
under a trap and turn it over so that it will go off safely, 
almost every time. Rather than go into a lynx house by 
the open door, which is of course guarded by a leg trap, 
he will dig down under the back of it, and come up inside, 
and thus get what he wants, viz. the bait. He is far the 
most persistent trap robber. Not satisfied with having 
eaten all he needs, he will take a marten out of a trap and 
bury it, and then following the man's trail all along the fur 
path, he will rob any and all of the other traps as he passes. 
The Indians have a tradition that the wolverine never eats 
a marten, but simply steals them out of wantonness and 
buries them. I have known of one of these beasts stealing 
fourteen marten at one time, and these were suspended in a 
tilt. In the same way he will climb a tree and rob a 
scaffolded cache of food. Their endurance is perfectly re- 
markable. An old wolverine was caught by the fore leg 
in a steel " jumper" trap at Paradise; fourteen days later 
he was sighted and shot at Dove Brook, a good twenty-five 
miles away. The steel trap and chain were still on the 
poor beast's leg, which was not frozen. When first seen 
he was carrying the trap in his mouth, and quite a large 



436 LABRADOR 

ball of ice had formed on it, apparently where the saliva 
had made it sticky and the snow had balled on it ; yet the 
poor brute was marching along on his journey. A wolverine 
taken in a trap shows fierce fight and endurance. From 
the latter fact have arisen some of the stories of his cun- 
ning. Thus, a wolverine in a trap was hit over the head 
by a hunter, and "killed." But as soon as the trapper 
stooped to pick him up, he jumped up and bit him. On 
another occasion a wolverine lay "dead" while the trap 
was taken off his leg, whereupon he immediately leaped up 
and ran away. 

The red squirrels are very numerous and very tame. One 
frequently finds their caches of food in holes in the ground 
or in stumps. They will also make their way into houses 
and stores, appropriating biscuits, bread, and other pro- 
visions. At Rigolet, the Hudson's Bay Company's agents 
have twice found collections of biscuits amounting to 
nearly a barrelful, which the little fellows had carried off 
and stored for winter. Their skins are of little value, but 
the animals are not bad eating when proteid food is scarce. 

Castor Canadensis. — The Labrador beaver has been abso- 
lutely protected by law for many years, and in some of the 
rivers near the East Coast, which are only hunted by single 
settlers, has become quite numerous. The hunters are 
most law-abiding, for it is very easy to sell the skins, and 
there is practically no one in Labrador to enforce the law. 
Their sturdy honesty, however, has not permanently saved 
the beaver. The roaming Indians found the animals extend- 
ing farther up the rivers on to their own more central hunt- 
ing grounds, and followed them down-stream to the coast, 
killing every animal which they met with as they went 



ANIMAL LIFE IN LABRADOR 437 

along. Being short of food, as they always are ; and the 
meat of the beaver being most succulent, there was a double 
incentive, for they would carry the skins away and sell 
them on the Gulf Shore, where these Indians go for sup- 
plies and for their religious ceremonies. Meanwhile, they 
not only kill beavers, but all the other fur which the white 
settlers depend upon for their living. We have had more 
than once to take refuge under the fact that, though we are 
magistrates, we are not policemen. 

The beaver is the gentlest of our wood folk, strong, heavy, 
and active. He is entirely devoted to peace; even when 
caught when coming out of his house by a man's hand, he 
will not turn and bite, but will allow himself to be lifted 
out of the water and then dealt with at leisure. The humble 
muskrat is often caught lodging in the house of his larger 
congener, who appears not to mind this intrusion on his 
family circle. Otters, also, have been seen to enter occupied 
beaver houses, and though it seems unworthy of them, they 
have been found guilty of killing their hosts. 

One trapper told me that he was watching a beaver 
house, waiting to stake the last door as soon as the owner 
of the house returned. The ice was quite clear, but four or 
five feet thick. Hearing some animal crackling and creak- 
ing along the bank, he lay and watched. Presently he saw 
a pair of otters swim out under the ice and enter the still 
open door of the beaver house. 

On his logging brook, Mr. Harry Crowe had dammed 
the brook in order to raise the level for log floating. This 
happened to interfere with a beaver whose house was just 
above, so he had to build the house higher and higher till 
it was like an Eiffel Tower. But one night he came down- 



438 LABRADOR 

stream to see what the matter was. Finding the dam, he 
coolly pulled out the mud and caulking, and lowered the 
level again to suit his pleasure. When, however, the 
loggers rebuilt the dam, the beaver very philosophically 
moved house and rebuilt in a pool much higher up-stream. 

Erethizon dorsatum picinum. The porcupine is not very 
common, but is considered by our settlers as the best eat- 
ing of any of the animals. The flavor differs with the 
season, and it is best in summer and fall, when he lives 
mostly on berries. In the spring he is apt to be " sprucy, " as 
at that time he lives in the trees, and eats practically noth- 
ing but bark. As he prefers the soft bark, he often kills 
the trees, but though he destroys our small firs, often as 
many as a hundred in a winter, he is not so numerous as to be 
a serious economic danger. Perhaps it is as well that our 
herbivorous mammals choose different ways of meeting the 
winter. Thus, the bears sleep, the rabbits eat young 
birch, the squirrel stores food, the porcupine keeps to 
conifers. In spite of his succulency he has little to fear 
from his enemies — except man. His short thick quills 
are barbed as well as sharp, and many a dog, wolf, or fox 
has attempted his life at the cost of their own. Once a 
quill gets well set in, every movement drives it on, so that 
festering sores are caused all over the body. Dogs get them 
in their tongues, and I have seen a fox skin spoiled by big 
sores left from the wounds of the quills. 

Thalarctus maritimus. — Most specimens of the polar 
bear which are taken now have come south on the floe ice 
in pursuit of the seal herds which have their young on it at 
about the latitude of North Newfoundland. They are our 
greatest travellers. I have found no instances of their 



ANIMAL LIFE IN LABRADOR 439 

attacking man ; yet a large one will stand six to seven feet 
high, on his hind legs, and weigh about 1200 pounds. 
After having been carried south on the ice they are saga- 
cious enough to find their way north again, even if they have 
to take to the land to do so. Every year a ragged line of 
straggling polar bears lands somewhere between St. John's 
and Cape Chidley, and all immediately seem to start on 
their long trip to the north. I have followed their trail 
over barren land and thick woods to the edge of the 
Straits of Belle Isle. The bear went straight north all the 
while, swimming over to Labrador. It seems to us that 
they must have some magnetic sense, as no one ever heard 
of one going south by mistake. They will loiter on the 
outer islands, eating the eggs of the numerous sea birds as 
they travel. It would seem that they are conscious of 
having one black spot, their nose. In approaching a seal 
on the ice, they have been seen to hide it in the snow, and 
in swimming after ducks they sink their whole body under 
water, and leave only their black nose out, so as to toll 
the birds nearer. 

I have myself seen a polar bear swimming at least three 
miles out from land, in the open sea, and with no ice 
about. He too was bound north. When shot he floated 
fairly high in the water, so we judged he could remain 
swimming as long as he liked. They are not fleet or agile 
enough to escape from dogs, and many times the Komatik 
dogs have run them down, and, on one occasion at least, 
killed the bear without any assistance from man. In the 
water they have been killed frequently by the fishermen, 
with an axe, or even blows from an oar, or seal bat. They 
do not swim fast, but they dive well. We lost one this 



440 LABRADOR 

way in rough water, the white foam making it impossible 
to distinguish him when he came up. I have known a 
large bear to get at the seal oil in a headed-up hard wood 
puncheon, and actually break the staves, presumably with 
blows from his paw. Their flesh has a fishy flavor, but the 
natives value the meat very highly. 

Phoca Greenlandica. — The seal was once almost innumer- 
able, but is now getting scarce, owing to the pelagic fishing 
during the breeding season. They are of immense value 
to the residents for the skin, fat, and meat. They seem to 
share the magnetic sense of the bears and birds. A baby 
seal six weeks old is called a " beater," and goes straight 
north almost at once. That he does not permanently lose 
his way as he wanders off into the mouths of our big bays 
is a difficult fact to explain otherwise. 

Odobenus rosmarus. — A walrus was killed at St. Anthony 
on the northeast coast of Newfoundland in the spring of 
1910. They are still occasionally taken along the east 
coast of Labrador, but are gradually being driven north. 

Lynx Canadensis. — The lynx is getting decidedly scarcer. 
His size and strength puts him with us among our most 
destructive animals. His skin has risen to about ten times 
the value it had twenty years ago. A trapper told me a 
story of two lynx who regularly hunted and rounded up a 
fox. I myself have seen where one had run down a fox 
and killed him. Another trapper described seeing two 
lynx attack an otter, which, however, got away safely. 

Putorius vison. — The mink has the habits of the otter 
and preys on fish. 

Arctorus ignavus. — Our woodchucks hibernate in the 
winter like bears. Our people have to leave their houses in 



ANIMAL LIFE IN LABRADOR 441 

the bays and come to the outer islands to fish in the summer. 
They plant their gardens before leaving, and more than 
one woodchuck, burrowing in under a paling, has lived 
happily all summer at the expense of the family who are 
fishing. 

Vulpes rubricosa. — The fox has pups of varying colors 
from red to black. The silver and black coloured ones are 
now being bred in many places for their pelts, especially in 
Nova Scotia. They have now got a law in Labrador pro- 
hibiting the export of live wild foxes, in order to encourage 
the fox farming industry, which has just begun in 1912. 
A single pair of the animals alive has fetched as much as 
$10,000, while 1100 pounds sterling is said to have been 
paid by the late King Edward for a single skin for his 
Queen. Two silvers bred together will throw silver pups for 
certain after three generations. At present they breed only 
once a year, but it is supposed that in ease and domesticity 
they may be induced to breed oftener, like their conquerors, 
the dogs. They are exceedingly sly. I made an attempt 
to propagate foxes for several seasons before the movement 
became general, but my animals always lost or destroyed 
their young. This presumably was due to the fact that we 
failed to prevent streams of visitors from getting access to 
the pens. The silvers are always more sly than the reds. 
I had a red and a patch fox which would scream with joy 
whenever they saw me approaching the pen, and run to me 
like a dog. The adult is apparently not so clever as he is 
supposed to be ; though there are many stories of foxes 
tolling geese and shell birds to shore by either walking up 
and down and showing only their tail, or lying quietly down 
and waving it. As I have seen the same result occur 



442 LABRADOR 

when my retriever has been running up and down quite 
visibly on the bank, it is possible that the manoeuvre really 
needs no supposition of especial cunning to explain it. 

A hunter in spring, on soft snow, will easily tire a fox out 
and run him down. Unlike most animals, foxes will eat 
one another. 






CHAPTER XVIII 

CONSERVATION AND EXPLORATION IN LABRADOR 
By Wilfred T. Grenfell 

It is patent to the most casual observer that coincident 
with the increase of population in any country the weaker 
creatures must inevitably go to the wall. This is as true 
of the aboriginal inhabitants as it is of the lower animal 
kingdom. Before men, armed with modern weapons of 
destruction, and with ever increasing means of transport, 
almost all the barriers behind which weaker Nature shelters 
herself are disappearing. In the Northwest the buffalo 
and the elk lands had to give way before cultivation, the 
prairies almost to the Arctic Circle are submitting to the 
taming hand of man, and the entrance of roads and rail- 
way tracks and growing townships ultimately make it 
practically impossible and even inadvisable to protect and 
preserve the wild creatures in their natural habitat. It is 
true that some animals can be domesticated and properly 
propagated in captivity, and so saved from extinction ; but 
many others must be lost to mankind unless large areas 
can be found where natural conditions make it easy and 
economically wise to assign sanctuaries for them. Unfor- 
tunately there seems to be a low level limit beyond which 
it is impossible for a particular species to recuperate, and this 
is especially the case with birds. On the other hand it has 
been shown that instinct teaches animals, and birds in par- 
ticular, the districts in which they are safe, however small 

443 



444 LABRADOR 

those regions may be. Note the gulls in our large har- 
bours, and the ducks and other sea birds which are safe in 
the middle of a city like San Francisco and feed fearlessly 
in huge numbers in the lake at Oakland, while a mile or 
two away, where gunners lie in wait for them, they are shy 
and unapproachable unless deceived by decoys. 

Nowhere in the world could be found a better natural 
reserve than Labrador. The impenetrable ice barrier 
which shuts it in in winter has, so far at least, defied the 
entrance of rapid transit and its vast area of over half a 
million square miles, except for its fringe of population 
along the seaboard, and its now roaming Indians, is still 
practically uninhabited. 

Its vast barrens, its enormous superficial fresh-water 
area, and its almost bare mountain sides seem to foretell 
that, however scientific are men's methods of farming, huge 
tracts must always in all probability be unoccupied by man. 
Of course in these days, when faith in the unity of elements 
is receiving currency, there is a possibility that if the ele- 
ments are transmutable, in some way Laurentian gneisses 
may be turned into gold, or even butter. No one can deny 
possibilities ! But except for the likely establishment of 
some few mines, geology seems to tell the same story as 
regards Labrador — that large areas of it will long be un- 
profitable for man's occupation. 

As a consequence, Labrador is still practically a land of 
pirates on Nature, or, as Hesketh Pritchard, in his delight- 
ful book, Through Trackless Labrador, puts it, we are "a 
purely predatory people on a barren but luxuriant coast." 

The end can only be what might be expected when the 
golden goose is killed — those who lived off its eggs will 






Conservation and exploration 445 

starve. So true is this that Professor W. A. Stearns, orni- 
thologist, who wintered on our coast, described Labrador as 
"a long barren coast, the miserable home of half-starved 
humanity." 

Any one who was to judge of the future of Labrador by 
such a category as follows might have some excuse for 
pessimism : — 

All natives, both Eskimo on the seacoast and Indians in 
the interior, are decreasing in numbers, and even the white 
settlers are scarcely holding their own. About one hundred 
Indians who came out only last winter had to live on the 
charity of the Hudson's Bay Post at Davis Inlet till May 
or starve. 

Walrus, practically gone. 

Whales, seriously diminished. 

Codfish, shoals scarcer and far more uncertain than 
formerly. 

Capelin, not nearly so abundant. 

Seals, so seriously diminished that the lack of food and 
clothing which they formerly provided is one chief cause 
of the depopulation of the country. 

Herring, once world famous, now no longer fished at all. 

Salmon, spasmodic, but greatly diminished. 

Trout, never a serious industry, but not at all what it 
was. 

White bear, only very occasionally seen now. 

Black bear, and all other fur-bearing animals, so much 
scarcer that in spite of trappers covering the country from 
as far in as Lake Petitsikapau and thence to the coast of 
St. Augustine, the total catch is getting annually smaller. 

Great auk, Labrador duck, oyster catcher, — extinct. 



446 LABRADOR 

Eskimo curlew, in thousands twenty years ago, now 
practically extinct. (I got four in September, 1912.) 

Eider duck, much scarcer, once they lived on every island. 
Now very few nest on the coast at all. 

Canada goose, still plentiful. 

Black duck, widgeon, teal, and pintail, markedly fewer. 

Willow grouse, so variable that it is hard to gauge their 
numbers. 

Spruce grouse, scarcer. 

Puffins, guillemots, auk, noticeably less. 

Woodland caribou, scarcer. 

Barren Land caribou, uncertainly met with. Mrs. Hub- 
bard and Mr. Prit chard think still plentiful. 

At best it is a disheartening list, especially when we 
have to add that in a country so hard to reforest vast 
areas of the excellent pulp timber have been destroyed by 
fire. 

On the other hand, the fact remains that these waters 
are ideal for shoals of fish which are more valuable now 
than ever ; that seals can flourish in immense herds on the 
coast, and still pay a reasonable tax without serious re- 
sults, while aviation and motoring is making their pelts 
exceedingly valuable. 

For long-haired and dark furs this environment cannot 
be excelled, and every year the price of good pelts advances. 
They average more than 100 per cent more on this coast 
than they did twenty years ago. Moreover, the country 
can support enormous numbers of deer, and thus yield a 
huge quantity of proteid food which is increasingly needed 
by the outside world. This is clearly shown both by ex- 
periment and by Nature. Again, its numerous rivers and 



CONSERVATION AND EXPLORATION 447 

estuaries, if properly guarded, can afford a supply of salmon 
and trout far superior in quality to the warm water fibrous 
fish of the North Pacific. 

Mr. Hesketh Pritchard and other writers have claimed 
that for travellers Labrador will one day be the Norway of 
North America, when once the means for comfortable 
transport along its magnificent seaboard is obtainable. But 
if its wild life is all destroyed, and as it has no historical 
monuments to boast of, it must lose a great deal of its 
attractive possibilities, just for want of scientific attention 
and capital. One other lamentable feature which cannot 
help striking the intelligent observer is the immense waste 
of Labrador. There is as yet no cold storage to improve 
the value of exports. All offal of cod and all coarse fish 
are wasted. Capelin and herring are put to no commercial 
value. Norway last year showed a record of : — 

Waste herring ground to flour $709,412 

Extracted herring oil . 258,376 

Gauno made from cods' heads 336,211 

Cod roes 312,543 

$1,616,542 

Germany now does an immense business in converting 
fish offal into feed for poultry. By not using fatty fish, 
like herring, no taste is given to either eggs or meat. At 
Gloucester, Mass., the same work is carried on, and im- 
mense supplies of glue made from the skin and bones. 

Our innumerable berries rot where they grow. There 
has been no attempt whatever at the adaptation of plants 
or animals. Immense water powers and vast pulp lands 
are yet entirely undeveloped. Our coast is poorly lighted 



448 LABRADOR 

and charted; yachts are practically unable to visit us. 
Nothing is done with fresh-water pearls, mussels, kelp, 
and other possible sources of revenue. Some advance, 
however, has been made. In summer there are wireless 
telegraph stations nearly halfway down our coast, and 
a small steamer has been detailed to visit along the north- 
ern two hundred miles as far as Cape Chidley. This 
northern part is much the most picturesque section of 
Labrador. But the vessel is still sadly inadequate for 
tourist traffic. The British Government has at last de- 
tailed a vessel for improving the surveys of the Labrador 
coast, and Dr. Louis King of Ottawa has done some ex- 
cellent work on detecting the presence of icebergs in thick 
weather. The Hudson Bay Route is also approaching a 
working basis. It has been suggested also that steamers 
making the round trip from the Bay to the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence call at Labrador ports on the way. 

Personally I feel convinced that a winter port at Cape 
Charles in the Straits of Belle Isle could be made acces- 
sible all the year round. 

Many prospectors and timber cruisers have been rang- 
ing Labrador, and the universal decision has been that 
valuable pulp areas exist. A rush on land followed, and 
every acre, including barrens and lakes, was applied for 
and granted. Companies were formed and attempts 
made to sell stock on the London and New York markets. 
Each year we have been informed that some area would 
certainly be worked. Plans with the minutest details 
have been sent in, and we had a request from one com- 
pany to find them a doctor. But nothing has yet begun, 
though it cannot be doubted that the logs are there in 



CONSERVATION AND EXPLORATION 449 

abundance. The difficulties of shipping, the long winter, 
and the lack of either roads, railways, or telegraphs has 
militated sorely against such plans materializing. Now, 
however, it does seem that a large syndicate, with a 
three-million-dollar capital, is to start in the spring, and 
if it does, it may be one more plea for a Labrador railway. 
A second large lumber concern has also given us notice 
that they intend to commence operating this winter. 
But the snow is on the hills, and the ice making, and 
there are as yet no arrivals. This company with orders 
for 7,000,000 tons of pulp annually for 36 New York 
newspapers had everything ready, having engaged en- 
gineers and managers, when they were warned that owing 
to the boundary dispute neither Canada nor Newfound- 
land could give them a valid title, and after an outlay in 
survey and other expenses of about $50,000, it was pre- 
vented from proceeding. But in spite of all statements 
to the contrary the pulp production of the world for 
paper is far below the requirements, and Labrador's vast 
pulp forests must sooner or later be exploited. 

Our reindeer experiment has advanced considerably. 
Next spring a herd goes to North Labrador in charge of 
some herders from that section, who have been trained at 
St. Anthony. Only a small number of people, and conse- 
quently few dogs are there, and these latter are the great- 
est menace to the success of the reindeer. A herd of fifty, 
with three of our herders, left in 1911 for Athabasca and a 
small herd of six has been privately purchased for the 
Indians of lower Quebec. We have had some trouble with 
the people killing our reindeer while hunting for caribou. 
But the Newfoundland Government has not yet been 



450 LABRADOR 

willing to create the north end of the island as a national 
preserve for the herd. We have found out that the same 
reindeer can no more be expected to be ranched for meat, 
to be milked for dairy purposes, and to haul and drive 
successfully, than can cattle or any other animals. For- 
merly we expected too much from them. For packing in 
summer they are all right, and in deep snow in early 
winter better for driving than dogs. The herd for ranch- 
ing must be separate from the dairy animals, and the 
latter must be taken from their fawns. Only the ox deer 
are used by us for hauling, which they do most excel- 
lently, though they are slow for driving. With only a 
very small sum for upkeep the herd must support itself, 
and so dairy experiments on any large scale have had to 
be postponed. 

In the fall of 191 1 the first shipment of carcasses for the 
market from the Alaskan reindeer herds was permitted. 
One hundred and twenty-five carcasses were sent up in 
cold storage, and realized from twenty-five to seventy- 
five cents a pound. 

We have now one thousand deer, having sold fifty, 
killed over one hundred for meat for hospital, and lost one 
hundred and fifty through straying, illegal killing, and 
accidents. We have now given an option on four hun- 
dred of the animals to a company that is proposing to 
start in ranching on a commercial basis for the London 
and New York markets. This is one of the ends which 
we most desire, as it will give the industry that lasting 
hold on the country which will ensure its permanence 
and extension, without which, and the government back- 
ing such as is given in Alaska, it must remain on a very 



CONSERVATION AND EXPLORATION 451 

small scale as a mission enterprise. The experiment 
needs more money to make it mature quickly, otherwise 
it must attain its final results very slowly. It is impos- 
sible to replace the dogs till there are enough deer to 
take their place. Commercializing at once part of the 
scheme seems anyhow to us to be absolutely essential 
unless more money can be placed behind it in some other 
way. 

One exceedingly helpful circumstance is the advent to 
Labrador of a large fur-farming concern. The great suc- 
cess made of fox farming in Nova Scotia and Maine has 
encouraged this enterprise, and there is every prospect 
of its becoming a great success. Small receiving stations 
have been established all along the coast, and Mr. Clar- 
ence Birdseye, the manager in charge, is creating a cen- 
tral farm. He is a trained naturalist of proved ability, 
having done three years' service in the field, under the 
Federal Government at Washington. With characteristic 
energy he has already succeeded in getting two laws 
passed to prevent the exportation of live wild foxes, and 
also of digging and destroying their burrows in summer. 
He anticipates that in future he may add mink, marten, 
and even otter and beaver breeding to his work. 

Enthusiastic prospectors continue to seek for the gold 
that the finds in the similar belt of rocks in the middle and 
far Northwest have suggested. Gold discoveries in Baffin 
Land sent four expeditions flying down there this summer. 

In short, everything seems to point to the fact that 
Labrador will come to her own in the not very distant 
future. 






APPENDICES 



INSECTS OF LABRADOR 

The Insects, excluding the Beetles 
By Charles W. Johnson 

Our knowledge of the insects of Labrador is based largely on 
the various papers by Alpheus S. Packard. The lists of the species 
recorded in these papers were later brought together and pub- 
lished in his work, The Labrador Coast. In this work about two 
hundred and twenty species are mentioned. A few additional 
species from the interior are listed in A. P. Low's Report on Ex- 
plorations in the Labrador Peninsula. 1 These, with a few scattered 
species, make the total number about two hundred and fifty. 
This is a small number if we consider the whole Labrador penin- 
sula, but a large number when we take into account the limited 
amount of entomological work which has been done and the small 
area covered. 

A. P. Low defines the southern boundary of the Labrador pen- 
insula as a straight line extending nearly east from the south end 
of James Bay, near lat. 51°, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence near 
Seven Islands, in lat. 50°. This gives a clearly defined geograph- 
ical area, which, bordered by Arctic seas, and a more elevated 
interior, gives quite uniform climatic conditions, and would make 
it possible to study the insect fauna to better advantage than if 
it were limited by political boundaries. 

The section from which nearly all the insects have been collected 
(the immediate coast-line) is in that portion of the boreal region 
which has been designated as Arctic, the flora and fauna of which 
are largely governed by the effect of the winds from the cold Arctic 
seas. On the other hand, a short distance inland, we enter the 
subarctic forest belt, or Hudsonian Zone, with a much richer 
insect fauna than could exist on the bleak, storm-swept coast, 

1 Am. Rep. Geol. Survey of Canada, Vol. VIII, 1895. 
453 



454 APPENDIX I 

The close proximity of the wooded section in the more southern 
portion and the narrowness of the so-called Arctic Zone causes 
it to be inhabited during the summer by many species from the 
strictly Hudsonian area to the west and south, even though condi- 
tions are not favourable for their permanent existence. Botan- 
ically the two zones are quite clearly defined, but from an entomo- 
logical standpoint it would be difficult to draw the line. 

Taking the country as a whole, the two hundred and forty 
recorded species probably represent less than thirty-five per cent 
of the insects which will be found to inhabit this region. It is 
somewhat difficult to make an estimate of the number of species 
in the more northern latitudes, where the tendency is toward vast 
numbers of individuals and few species, and where the insects 
with incomplete metamorphosis are poorly represented. There 
are, however, many reasons for considering, that our knowledge 
of the insects of Labrador is very imperfect. The country with 
its comparatively rich flora (over five hundred species) presents 
quite favourable conditions for insect life, a fact which is shown 
by the large number of species recorded from the so-called Hudson 
Bay region, and the tendency of species in northern latitudes to 
extend entirely across the continent. There has been an almost 
total neglect of the Diptera, or flies, the order most prevalent in 
boreal regions, only fifteen species being recorded, while from 
Alaska, for example, two hundred and seventy-six species represent- 
ing one hundred and thirty-eight genera and thirty-six families 
were obtained by Professor Trevor Kincaid of the Harriman expe- 
dition during the summer of 1899. 

Under each order will be given a brief account of our present 
knowledge of the insects of this region, with notes on their habits, 
distribution, and other features of general interest. 

I am indebted to Mr. H. H. Newcomb for the loan of some 
butterflies, to Mr. J. A. Cushman for photographs, and to Miss 
L. R. Martin for drawings illustrating this article. 

The Diptera, or two-winged insects, comprise what are popu- 
larly known as flies, midges, gnats, and mosquitoes. I have stated 
that this is a very much neglected order, but I am told that they 
never neglect the visitor ; in fact we would probably know more 
about the flies of Labrador if they were not quite so attentive. 
They constitute the most annoying, and at times an almost un- 
bearable, feature of the short summer, nature seeming to strive 
to make up in individuals what it lacks in species. It seems 
remarkable that insects can increase in such numbers in so short 
a time, and under conditions apparently so unfavourable, but 
cold does not seem to hinder the development of certain species. 
Professor John B. Smith, in his work on the mosquitoes of New 



APPENDIX I 



455 



Jersey, has positively proved that during the early days of Feb- 
ruary, in water just above the freezing temperature, the larva of 
Culex canadensis hatches from the egg. A wingless snow gnat 
(Chionea valga) is found only during the winter in the northern 
United States and Canada, crawling on the snow with the ther- 
mometer as low as 15° above zero. There are many other insects 
which seem to thrive under similar conditions. 

Another feature which enables Diptera to withstand most un- 
favourable climatic conditions is their diversity of habit ; aquatic, 
parasitic, herbivorous, and carnivorous, they feed upon almost 
everything from living tissue to the most putrid and decayed animal 
and vegetable matter, and are thus liable to be widely distributed 
through commerce. Many of the blood-thirsty species breed in 
water, the larva of the mosquito living in swamps and stagnant 
pools, while those of the black-fly frequent the rapidly running 
streams. These conditions, existing to so great an extent through- 
out the interior, present very favourable breeding places for these 
insects, and render some districts practically uninhabitable by man. 

A great similarity prevails throughout the whole dipterous 
fauna of the more northern regions. Many are circumpolar in 
their distribution, others differ so slightly that it is almost impos- 
sible to determine them from descriptions, and comparison with 
European specimens is necessary. That they have not become 
more differentiated is probably due to the uniform climatic condi- 
tions under which they have existed. In numbers the Diptera 
extend farther into the Arctic region than any other order of 
insects, therefore presenting one of the best groups for tracing 
boreal distribution. 

The flies include most of the many species of insects which 
infest mammals and birds. Of these parasites some may be ex- 
ternal, others internal. Their generally small size and the indif- 
ference of trappers and most collectors of animals and birds to 
their existence, is one of the principal reasons for our lack of 
knowledge of these forms, especially from more northern latitudes. 
It is doubtful if there is an animal or bird which is entirely free 
from a parasite. While these are probably less numerous in the 
colder region, the conditions are quite favourable, and they are 
undoubtedly more abundant than is generally supposed. 

There are two species of flies of which we know but little, but 
which we do know infest the caribou. They belong to the family 
(Estridse, popularly known as bot-flies. The habits of one of the 
species are apparently similar to those of the sheep bot-fly. A 
description, therefore, of what is known of the latter species may 
aid in studying the life history of the one infesting the caribou. 

The fly of the. sheep-bot is about one-half of an inch in length, 



456 APPENDIX I 

very rapid in its actions, and consequently not readily seen when 
flying. Its small size and obscure colouring would also prevent 
its detection when at rest in protected places during cold, wet 
days, for it only flies during the dry, warmer days, at which time 
the female attempts to deposit its young larvae in the nostrils of 
the sheep. The eggs of the sheep bot-fly are retained until hatched 
in the oviduct, and emerge as young larvae or maggots. The 
appearance of one of these flies among a flock of sheep causes con- 
siderable alarm, and they try various ways to prevent it from 
depositing its young larvae. They huddle together, lie down and 
bury their noses in the dirt, and even raise a cloud of dust to deceive 
their enemy. When deposited in the nose of the sheep, the young 
maggot, by means of small hooks and spines, begins its migrations 
upward through the nostrils to the frontal sinuses. The move- 
ment of the larva, as it increases in size, greatly irritates the poor 
victim, and it makes many attempts, by sneezing and snorting, 
to rid itself of the parasite. This is rarely accomplished, however, 
until the larva reaches maturity, when it detaches itself from 
the mucous membrane, reaches the nose, and is expelled by the 
violent snorting of its host. 

The grub remains about ten months in the nasal cavity of the 
sheep. After leaving the sheep it pupates and remains in that 
state from four to six weeks, when the adult fly makes its ap- 
pearance. 

Dr. Grenfell informs me that in all of the heads of the caribou 
that he has examined, he has found parasitic larvae, usually just 
below the ethmoid. The injury done the caribou by this parasite 
is not known, nor do we know the species, as neither the larva nor 
fly has been secured. It probably belongs to the genus Cephalo- 
myia. To work out its life history and determine the species 
would prove an interesting subject for investigation. 

The second species infesting the caribou is a subcutaneous para- 
site, which may prove to be the same as the reindeer bot-fly (CEde- 
magena tarandi). If not, it is a closely related species, with a 
life history probably similar to that of the ox bot-fly, or warble 
(Hypoderma). The eggs are deposited on and fastened to the 
hairs in a similar manner to those of the horse bot-fly, and always 
in a position within reach of the animal's mouth, as on the fore 
legs and sides. In licking itsalf the animal transfers these eggs 
to the mouth, the saliva rapidly dissolves the hard egg cases, and 
the young larvae already formed within are liberated. These 
young spiny larvae pass by way of the oesophagus through the 
tissues of the animal to the subcutaneous tissue along the back, 
forming large tumours or swellings before reaching maturity. When 
the larva has attained its full size, it bores its way out and drops 









APPENDIX I 457 

to the ground, into which it enters and pupates. It remains in 
this dormant stage about four weeks, when the fly emerges, soon to 
lay another lot of eggs. The larval period lasts about ten months, 
the presence of the larvae causing inflammation, loss of flesh, and 
injury to the skin. Dr. Grenfell says that he has seen a skin so 
perforated that it was practically impossible to cut from it a pair 
of moccasins. Mr. Owen Bryant informs me that the caribou of 
Newfoundland are infested by what is apparently the same fly. 
The reindeer bot-fly is found in Alaska. 

The birds and mammals of Labrador would indicate the pres- 
ence of other families of insects. In the Diptera should be found 
members of the family Hipposcidae, popularly called the louse-fly, 
from their habits of living parasitically upon birds and animals. 
They have flattened bodies adapted for moving readily between 
the feathers and hairs. Some species have wings, while in others 
the wings are obsolete or wanting. The term Pupipara is applied 
to this group on account of its remarkable mode of reproduction. 
The eggs hatch within the body of the parent, the larva being 
retained and nourished until full grown and ready to change to 
the pupa. These flies are most commonly observed on the hawks 
and owls, although many other birds are infested. The owl-fly 
(Olfersia americana) lives upon the great-horned owl. The 
Pseudolfersia maculata Coq. (= fumipennis) infests the osprey and 
loon, while on blackbirds and other small birds are frequently 
found the more common bird-fly, Ornithomyia pallida. Many 
species of the Mallophaga, or bird-lice, are probably present on 
various species of birds. 

The horse-flies, or gad-flies, are represented by the two most 
prominent genera — Chrysops, or deer-flies, and Tabanus, or true 
horse-flies. Both are at 
times very annoying, es- 
pecially in the woods, 
swarming about in great 
numbers and frequently FlG - 4 - 

giving sharp bites. Pack- Larva of the Horse-fly. 

ard, in referring to these 

flies, says: "Half a dozen frightful horse-flies of gigantic stature 
hovered about. Now and then, when we are not watching, they 
will settle down on our hands and bite terribly, making a wound 
which does not heal for days." I am told the natives call them 
" waps," probably a corruption of " wasps. " They are not as active 
on a cloudy day, and a strong breeze will usually disperse them. 

The three species of Chrysops are all black forms with the 
usual broad black band on the centre of the wing. Chrysops 
excitans (PL, Fig. 1) has two of the basal segments of the abdomen 



458 APPENDIX I 

yellowish on the sides with a large gray triangle on the second 
segment. Chrysops mitis has the abdomen entirely black, with 
faint triangles of grayish hairs. Chrysops sordidus is distinguished 
by having the first and second segments of the abdomen marked 
with yellow on the sides, and the posterior margins of all the seg- 
ments narrowly bordered with gray, and a dorsal row of small 
triangles. The species are all of about the same size, a little less 
than a half inch in length, C. excitans as a rule being a little larger 
than the other two. 

The larger horse-flies are represented by at least six species, 
all belonging to the group with hairy eyes. These were formerly 
separated from the genus Tabanus and placed in the genus Therio- 
plectes, but they are now united, the character used in separating 
them being probably only of subgeneric value. The two most promi- 
nent species are Tabanus flavipes, or the yellow-footed horse-fly, and 
Tabanus zonalis, or banded horse-fly (PL, Fig. 2). They are nearly 
three-quarters of an inch in length, with wings spreading an inch and 
a quarter ; black, with the posterior margins of the abdominal seg- 
ments bordered with a band of golden-yellow hair; the wings are 
brownish, tinged with yellow toward the base. The two species 
closely resemble each other, but can be readily separated by the 
latter's having the tubercle in front of the base of the wing reddish, 
and the yellow bands of the abdomen broader, with slight ante- 
rior projections on the second and third segments. The Tabanus 
auripilus of northern Europe is closely related to flavipes. Another 
species of about the same size is Tabanus affinis (PL, Fig. 3); 
it is a dark brownish black, with the sides of the abdomen red. 
The little-headed horse-fly, Tabanus microcephalus, is about one- 
half inch in length ; the head is comparatively small, not exceeding 
the width of the thorax ; the abdomen is marked with three rows 
of conspicuous grayish triangles. The northern horse-fly, Ta- 
banus septentrionalis, is similar in general appearance, but with a 
larger head and less prominent abdominal markings. The sixth 
species, Tabanus illotus, is distinguished from the preceding one 
by the broad, distinctly excised, third antennal joint, and faint 
brown clouding on the cross-veins. 

The larvse of the horse-flies (Fig. 4) are aquatic or subaquatic, 
living either in the mud in streams and swamps, or in wet earth 
adjacent to springs. The eggs are placed on plants overhanging 
the water or in very wet situations. The eggs hatch in about a 
week, and the young larvse drop into the water or mud. The 
larvse are carnivorous, feeding upon other insects and snails, and 
probably repaying to some extent their annoyance when adult. 
They are cylindrical, tapering gradually toward the end, and 
usually translucent, whitish, and in some of the larger species 




Fig. I . Chrysops excitans 
(enlarged) 




Fig. 3. Tabanus affini 




Fig. 8. Sirex flavicornis 




Fig. 2. Tabanus zonali 




Fig. 5. Tipula tesselata 




Fig. 9. Brenthus frigga 



APPENDIX I 459 

frequently banded with brown or black. They possess great ex- 
tensile and retractile powers, which enable them to move quite 
rapidly through the mud and decaying vegetable matter. When 
captured they are restless and active; if held carelessly in the 
closed hand they use their mandibles freely, puncturing the skin 
and causing severe pain. 

The family Tipulidae, or the crane-flies, as they are popularly 
called in reference to their long, slender legs, constitute a very 
conspicuous group of flies which extends well into the Arctic 
region. Six species have been recorded from Labrador, but there 
are probably four or five times this number. The large tessellated 
crane-fly, Tipula tessellata (PL, Fig. 5), is over an inch in length, with 
spotted wings and dark body covered with a grayish pollen. The 
northern crane-fly, Tipula septentrionalis', is a smaller species, 
with darker wings marked with white and black. The larvae of 
this group live either in damp, decaying vegetation, or in wet 
earth and water. 

- Of the mosquitoes of Labrador we only know that they are abun- 
dant and constitute a very annoying feature, but from a systematic 
standpoint we know very little. Specimens collected by Dr. 
C. W. Townsend and Dr. G. M. Allen were submitted to Dr. H. G. 
Dyer, who says: "I have looked over your specimens, and find 
that they unfortunately belong to that group of JEdes which can- 
not be determined with any certainty without the larvae. I have 
been able to separate most of the species from regions collected 
over, but as these come from Labrador, it is possible that they 
represent new species, which would have differential larvae, but 
be very close as adults. These are some of the early spring species, 
which in Labrador are doubtless the dominant, if not the only 
occurring, species." 

Closely related to the Culicidae, or mosquitoes, are the Chiro- 
nomidae, or midges. Four or five species of this family have been 
collected, but among them are no representatives of the biting 
forms. To the genus Ceratopogon belong the "punkies," or 
"biting gnats," which the Indians call the "no-see-ura." These 
very minute but annoying insects are sometimes abundant in north- 
ern Maine, and especially noticeable just after sunset when there 
is no wind. They may possibly extend into southern Labrador. 

The black-fly, Simulium (Fig. 6), is an even more formidable 
pest than the mosquito, for, unlike the latter, it makes its appear- 
ance only on the bright sunny days and disappears during the 
cloudy weather. In describing their attacks, Packard says: "The 
armies of black-flies were supported by light brigades of mosquitoes. 
They fly into our faces ; they do not bite hard, like the mosquitoes, 
but the vampires suck long and deep, leaving great clots of blood. 



460 



APPENDIX I 




Fig. 6. 
The Black-fly. 



No wonder that these entomological pests are a perfect barrier 
to inland travel, and that few people live during the summer away 
from the sweep of the high winds and dwell on the exposed shores 
of the coast to escape these torments." The 
larva of the black-fly (Fig. 7) lives in the swiftly 
flowing streams, while those of the mosquito 
are found in stagnant water, and as " one-third 
of the area is given up to ponds and streams," 
conditions are very favourable for their increase. 
There are many other species of flies, fully 
as interesting as the biters. The little Doli- 
chopodidae and Empididae are each represented 
by four or five species; the bright-coloured 
Syrphidae, by about twelve species, including 
such forms as Syrphus contumax, S. diver sipes, 
Melanosto mamellinum, Eristalis bastardi, and 
Helophilus glacialis; the Tachinidse, or para- 
sitic flies, by the large Echinomyia florum ; the 
Muscidse, or house-flies, by the " blow-fly" (Calliphora vomitoria), 
the blue flesh-fly (Cynomyia cadaverina), the common green carrion- 
fly (Lucilia ccesar), and the dark blue (Phormia terras, 
novce). Hosts of Anthomyidae are yet to be determined, 
while the Scatophagidae are represented by the widely 
distributed Scatophaga stercoria, furcata, and islandica. 
The order Hymenoptera includes the bees, wasps, ants, 
saw-flies, etc. Notwithstanding their diversity of habit, 
it is one of the orders which diminishes greatly in num- 
bers as we approach the more Arctic regions. Only 
twenty-six species have been recorded from Labrador. 
Further research will, however, increase this number, 
especially in the Ichneumonidae, or parasitic species. 

The large percentage of Phyllophaga, or leaf-eaters, 
is very marked, eleven of the above numbers represent- 
ing this group. They belong to the family Tenthri- 
dinidae, popularly known as saw-flies, a term derived 
from a peculiar structure on the under side of the last 
abdominal segment of the female, consisting of a pair , ^T a ,° 
of chitinous, sawlike pieces with which she cuts little * he ac "' 
pockets in the leaves in which to deposit her eggs. y ' 

Many of the saw-flies are injurious to the spruce, larch, willow, 
birch, and other trees and plants, often completely defoliating 
them. The larvae resemble some of those of the butterflies and 
moths, but can be quite readily distinguished by having from 
twelve to sixteen prolegs, or abdominal feet, while the true cater- 
pillars have as a rule only ten. Various species of the genus Ne- 




APPENDIX I 461 

matus infest the spruce, willow, and birch. Euura orbitalis makes 
a gall on the willow. 

Closely allied to the saw-flies are the Xylophaga, or wood-eating 
Hymenoptera, comprising the family Siricidse, or horntails, the 
females being provided with a long, hornlike ovipositor adapted for 
boring, as the eggs are laid in solid wood on which the larvae feed. 
Two species are recorded from Labrador. The large and beautiful 
Sirex flavicornis (PL, Fig. 8), with its handsome livery of deep black 
and orange-yellow, seems to be quite common. The male is smaller 
and darker than the female, the yellow being confined to the four 
middle segments of the abdomen, at the end of which there is only 
a short triangular projection. It differs so much from the female 
that for a long time it masqueraded under the name of Sirex ab- 
dominalis. In more southern localities this insect infests the 
white pine, but in this region it probably lives in the spruce. Sirex 
cyaneus, a dark blue species, has been recorded from Hopedale. 
We should naturally expect to find one of the large ichneumon 
flies (Thalessa or Rhyssa) with very long ovipositors, which para- 
sitizes the horntails farther south. 

There are a large number of parasitic species belonging to the 
family Ichneumonidae. Packard collected about twenty -five 
species, only five of which have been determined. He also records 
two or three species of Chalcidae. Both of these groups are prob- 
ably mostly parasitic, as the various species of moth. 

Two species of ants are recorded, — the large Campanotus her- 
culeanus, or black carpenter ant, which builds extensive nests 
in logs and stumps and even living trees, and Formica sanguinea, 
or the "slave makers." It would be interesting to note the habits 
of this species in the more northern latitudes. The white-faced 
hornet, or paper-making wasp (Vespa maculata), has been recorded 
from the more southern portions of the peninsula, and Vespa nor- 
vegica from Caribou Island. Five species of bumblebees (Bombus) 
have been collected, some of which have a wide band of dark orange- 
red pile on the abdomen. There are probably a number of the 
smaller bees, such as Andrena and Halictus, several species of 
which often appear very early in the spring in more southern 
latitudes. 

The order Lepidoptera, or the butterflies and moths, is not only 
very well represented, but includes many rare and interesting 
species. Upwards of one hundred and fifteen have been recorded, 
of which number eighteen are butterflies. Among the latter are 
four species of the smaller Fritillaries, — Brenthus frigga (PL, Fig. 9), 
B. polaris, B. triclaris, and B. chariclea. They are similar in appear- 
ance, the upper surface of the wings being reddish, marked with 
black, while the under side of the hind wings bears a series of 



462 APPENDIX I 

whitish spots or markings. A larger species, Argynnis atlantis, 
the "mountain silver-spot/' has been recorded from the interior 
of the peninsula. It may prove to be only an accidental visitor, 
although two species of violets, the food plant of the Fritillaries, 
are recorded as far north as Hopedale. Papilio turnus, the 
yellow swallow-tail, has also been recorded from the interior. 

The northern white butterfly (Pontia napi, variety frigida) 
varies greatly in different localities, and consequently has received 
many varietal names. The wings are white, with the veins on the 
under side more or less broadly marked with gray, with the tip of 
the fore wings and the hind wings pale yellow. The larvae feed on 
various species of the Cruciferous plants, especially turnip and 
mustard. 

The smaller yellow, or sulphur, butterflies are represented by 
three or four species, — Eurymus palceno, nastes, and pelidne or 
labradorensis. The large "white-j butterfly," Eugonia j-album 
(PL, Fig. 10), is marked with dull yellow and reddish brown, irregularly 
maculated with black, with a spot of white near the tip of the wing, 
and the outer margin with a double crenulated line; the hind 
wing i.3 reddish brown, black along the anterior margin, with a 
central patch of white; the under side consists of various shades 
of grayish brown, giving a woody or mossy effect, and when the 
insect is at rest presenting an interesting example of protective 
coloration. The larvae feed on birch. It has been taken as far 
north as Okkak. 

The barren-ground butterfly, or Arctic satyr, (Eneis jutta (PL, 
Fig. 11). is circumpolar, being found in the more northern parts of 
both the eastern and western continents. The colour of the fore 
wings is a dark brown, with six yellowish spots of varying sizes near 
the outer margin and somewhat blending into the brown, spots 
with or without central points of black; the hind wing has four 
yellowish patches, the anal one with a small black spot ; the under 
side is brownish, the hind wings being mottled with gray and closely 
resembling the moss-covered ground and rocks. A closely related 
species, the "White Mountain butterfly" {CEneis norma, variety 
semidea), is very similar in colour, and its habits have been so 
nicely described by Mr. A. H. Scudder that I quote the following : — 

"As soon as one alights it tumbles upon one side with a sudden 
fall, but not quite to the surface, exposing the under side of the 
wings with their marbled markings next the gray rocks mottled 
with brown and yellow lichens, so that the ordinary passer-by 
would look at them without observing their presence : it is an ob- 
vious case of protective resemblance. The surface is generally ex- 
posed so as to receive the fullest rays of the sun, or else the creature 
falls so as to let the wind sweep over it, its base to the windward." 



APPENDIX I 463 

The larva of the Arctic satyr feeds on carax. It has been found 
at Nain, Hopedale, and Square Island Harbour during the months 
of June and July. (Eneis norma, varieties semidea (ceno) and bore, 
are recorded from Strawberry Harbour and Hopedale, collected 
August 3. 

The little "Arctic bluet/' Agriades aquilo (Polyommatus franklinii 
Curtis), which Packard refers to as "half skipping and half flying 
over the lichened boulders," has been taken at Sloop Harbour, 
Henley Harbour, and Hopedale, July 19 to August 15. In the in- 
terior of the peninsula, one of the varieties of the " Spring Azure" 
— Lyccena (Cyaniris) ladon, variety lucia — has been collected. Its 
colour is a pale violet, the wings having a broad blackish border 
in the female ; under side of the wings is light gray, flecked with 
brownish black. The wings expand about one inch. It feeds 
on a great variety of plants, especially Cornus. 

Two species of the Hesperidse, or skippers, are recorded. The 
Pomphila comma, representing the variety "catena Stand.," is also 
found in northern Scandinavia and Lapland. The other species 
is Hesperia centaurece Ramta. 

The family Arctiidse is represented by only four species. One 
of the tiger-moths (Apantesis quenseli), a small black species with 
the fore wings tessellated with white, is also found throughout 
Arctic America, Europe, and Asia, and on Mount Washington, 
New Hampshire, and the Swiss Alps. The great tiger-moth, 
Arctia caia, has dark brown fore wings marked with white, and 
bright red hind wings spotted with black. It is also circumpolar 
in its distribution. The large and beautiful "St. Lawrence tiger- 
moth," Hyphoraia parthenos (PI., Fig. 12), with its bright reddish 
brown fore wings spotted with yellow, and bright yellow hind 
wings banded with black, is recorded from the Moravian stations. 

The Noctuidse, or owlet-moths, number about forty species, 
and form a very interesting group worthy of a great deal of study. 
Professor Packard refers to those boreal forms as follows : — 

"The moths were all Arctic species, and when at rest so harmo- 
nized in colour with the lichens and other vegetation in which they 
nestled as to entirely deceive me. And yet what was the use of 
practising, even unconsciously to themselves, this deception? 
The answer was not far off — there was a shore lark, or some such 
bird, flitting about and running over the rocks, busily searching 
for just such moths as these, and the only hope of safety for 
the insects from their sharp eyes was in their resemblance to the 
lichens." 

The forty species are divided among some fourteen genera 
according to the more modern classification, the more prominent 
of these being Mamestra, Pachnobia, Hadena, Semiophora, Anarta 



464 APPENDIX I 

(PI., Fig. 13), Noctua, and Syngrapha. To this family belong the 
cutworms and many other injurious species. The larvae vary con- 
siderably in appearance, and feed upon a great variety of plants. 

The Geometridae, or measuring-worms, are so named from the 
peculiar looping gait of the larvae, as if measuring the surface over 
which they move. There have been recorded about twenty species. 
The family Lipariidae is represented by Gyncephora rossii; and the 
Hepialidae, or ghost-moths, by Hepialus hyperboreus and mus- 
telinus. 

The family Pyralidae, numbering about eight species; the 
Crambidse, or "close wings," some six species; the Tortricidae, 
or leaf -rollers, — a term derived from the habit of many of the 
larvae, — with about twenty species ; and the Tineidae, which con- 
tains the clothes-moths and a number of the leaf-miners, and rep- 
resented by some ten species, comprise the smaller species, and 
constitute in part what are commonly classed as the Microlepi- 
doptera. 

The caddis-flies constitute one of the most interesting groups 
of aquatic insects. They belong to the order Trichoptera, or 
hairy-winged insects. At first sight many of these resemble a 
moth, but with a closer acquaintance no one need confuse the two. 
The peculiar habits of the larvae of the various species form one 
of the most interesting studies of insect life. A bundle of little 
sticks, or a tube made of coarse grains of sand, moving mysteriously 
about the bottom of a stream or spring is apt to attract the atten- 
tion of the most casual observer, but how few know what these are. 
They are the cases of the caddis-worms, the larvae of the caddis- 
flies, built to protect their soft bodies from their enemies. What 
adds so much to their interest is that each species has a very differ- 
ent method of house building, some preferring wood, others stone, 
but the caddis carpenters and masons do not always build in the 
same manner. Some place the sticks crosswise, while others 
arrange them longitudinally ; some have the curious habit of 
decorating by fastening shells, etc., to the outside of their houses; 
others make a case largely composed of pieces of leaves. The 
numerous masons seem to be very particular about the size of the 
stones and the shape and position of their domiciles. One will 
make a beautiful tube of sand, unattached, in which it wanders 
to all parts of the stream ; another will make a spiral tube so closely 
resembling a snail-shell as to lead a conchologist to describe it as a 
mollusk. One, commonly observed in running streams, is made 
of a few small pebbles attached to a large stone. Some of the 
dwellers in these rude homes are also fishermen and construct a 
funnel-shaped net at their doors, with the opening upstream. 
Their nets are made of silken threads, such as are used in fastening 




Fig. 15. yEshna constricta 




Fig. 12. Hyphoraia parthenos 




Fig. 1 1. CEneis jutta 




Fig. 10. Eugonia j-album 




Fig. 16. Leucorhina hudsonica 




Fig. 13. Anarta 



APPENDIX I 



465 



together the stones and sticks. In some species the entire case is 
made of silk. Some five or six species have been recorded from 
Labrador. Limnophilus subpunctatus is a common species which 
is also found in Lapland. Desmataulius planifrons is recorded by 
Professor Packard from Okkak. 

The Hemiptera, or true bugs, are poorly represented, — two 
leaf -hoppers, including Deltocephalus debilis; a small bug, Trigono- 
tylus ruficornis; and one of the " water-boat-man, " Corisa, are 
all that have been discovered. Equally scarce are the Orthoptera, 
only one species of grasshopper, Melanoplus, having been recorded. 

The Odonata, or dragon-flies, are among the most active and 
swift-flying of insects, darting back and forth over the ponds and 
streams and turning suddenly as they seize 
any unfortunate midge that comes within 
their reach; or alighting on the tip of a 
dead stick or reed from which vantage- 
point they can swoop like hawks upon 
their prey. Thus they are in many sec- 
tions of the country known by the popular 
name of mosquito hawks. 

The dragon-fly lays her eggs in the 
water, where the young or nymphal stages 
are passed. The nymph (Fig. 14) is a 
clumsy, awkward creature, crawling over 
the mud and among decaying vegetation, 
where it will lie partly concealed until its 
unsuspecting victim comes within reach 
of its extensible lower lip, which is armed 
with a pair of jawlike hooks. They are 
voracious feeders and not at all particular, 
for young fish are frequent victims. They 

are, however, to be classed among the Nymph of the Dragon-fl 
beneficial insects, for they undoubtedly 

destroy great numbers of the pestiferous gnats, mosquitoes, and 
flies. 

After moulting several times, the nymph, when it attains its 
full size, crawls out upon some stick or plant, the skin splits longi- 
tudinally along the back, and the adult dragon-fly emerges. The 
life of the adult is from twenty to forty days, depending on cli- 
matic conditions, the more northern latitudes being unfavourable. 
About three hundred species are known from the whole of North 
America, of which only eight have thus far been collected in Labra- 
dor, including such large and widely distributed species as 
JEshna constricta (PI , Fig: 15), JE. crenata, JE. septentrionalis, the 
type of which was from Labrador, four species of the genus Somato- 

2 H 




Fig. 14. 



466 



APPENDIX 1 



chlora, two of which were originally described from this region, 
and Leucorhina hudsonica (PL, Fig. 16). 

The May-flies, or day-flies, belong to the order Ephemerida, 
an application which refers to the short lives of the imagoes. They 
represent one of the more primitive groups, with mouth-parts 
rudimentary or almost wanting in the adult, as they do not feed 
during their few hours of existence as winged insects. The wings 
are delicate, with a fine network of veins ; the hind wings are much 
smaller than the fore wings, or sometimes wanting; the abdomen 
bears two or three long, many-jointed, bristlelike appendages, 
while the antennae are very short. In 
the nymph or the wingless aquatic stage 
their life is a long one, in some species 
often extending to two or three years. 
The nymphs are interesting objects of 
the streams and lakes, clinging to the 
under sides of stones and sticks and feed- 
ing on the smaller animal and plant life. 
They are readily recognized by having 
their sides fringed with tracheal gills, 
two or three caudal appendages, and feet 
with single claws. When the nymph 
attains its full size, it rises to the sur- 
face, the cuticle along the back suddenly 
splits, and a frail-winged creature appears, 
but this is not the true imago ; it is what 
is known as the subimago stage. In a 
short time another moulting takes place, 
and we have the adult day-fly. This 
subimago stage is unknown in any other 
order of insects. Potamanthus marginatus, 
the only species recorded from Labrador, 
also occurs in northern Europe. 

Somewhat resembling the nymphs of 
the day-flies are those of the stone-flies, belonging to the order 
Plecoptera, or plaited-winged insects. These can, however, be 
easily separated, the gills being in the form of tufts of short hairs 
on the thorax and behind each leg, and not on the sides of the 
abdomen. The feet have two claws, the legs being usually fringed 
with hairs, and there are two caudal processes. They are found 
in streams which are quite rapid, as they require more aerated 
water than the nymphs of the day-flies. Reaching its full size, 
the nymph (Fig. 17) crawls out upon the rocks or trees, the skin 
splits along the back, and the adult appears. 

The full-grown stone-fly (Fig. 18) is, however, very different in 




Fig. 17. 

Nymph of the Stone-fly. 



APPENDIX I 



467 




Fig. 18. 
The Stone-fly. 



appearance from the day-fly. The body is flattened, the antenna? 
are quite long, the fore wings narrow, and noticeably smaller than 
the hind wings. Some of the smaller species appear very early in 
the spring, long before the snow has melted. 
Three species have been recorded from this 
region, — the large Pteronarcys regalis, Perla 
sp., and one of the small green Chloroperla. 

The Thysanura, popularly known as the 
bristle-tails or spring-tails, constitute the most 
primitive group of insects. Although not 
recorded from Labrador, there is little doubt 
that the order is represented, for they seem 
to thrive under very unfavourable conditions. 
The snow-flea (Achorates nivicola), a minute, 
blue-black insect, is exceedingly abundant in 
the snow in New England and Canada, and 
undoubtedly extends northward. A closely 
allied species, Podura humicola, is found in 
Greenland. 

While the spiders do not belong to the true 
insects, but constitute a separate class known 
as Arachnida, they are very frequently re- 
ferred to in connection with insects. Spiders are distinguished 
by having four pairs of legs, the head and thorax united, forming 
the cephalothorax and an unsegmented abdomen. Eleven species 
have been recorded, including several of the genus Lycosa, or run- 
ning spiders, two of the " orb-weavers " (Epiera), and a "tube- 
weaver" (Clubiona). A Myriopoda (Millepede) is recorded from 
Square Island. 

The Beetles 
By John D. Sherman, Jr. 

A list of the beetles and other insects of Labrador was pub- 
lished as long ago as the summer of 1888 by the late A. S. Packard 
of Brown University, and reprinted in his book. The Labrador 
Coast. This list included about sixty different kinds of beetles 
collected at various places along the coast, many of them gathered 
by himself in 1860 when he made his first trip to Labrador, and 
most of the others by Dr. Robert Bell. Even before Packard's 
visit to Labrador, several insects from the Hudson Bay region had 
been mentioned and described by the well-known British ento- 
mologist, Kirby. This was in 1837. 

During the last two or three years the writer, through the kind 
assistance of Dr. Grenfell, has had the good fortune to receive a 



468 APPENDIX I 

large number of Labrador beetles from correspondents living at 
the following points: West St. Modest (Ernest Doane), Red 
Bay (W. Y. Pike), Cape Charles (Albert Pye), Nain (Chesley Ford), 
Nachvak (George Ford), and Fort Chimo (Duncan Matheson). 

These men, without any previous experience in insect collecting, 
succeeded in finding seven or eight thousand beetles representing 
over eighty distinct species, some of them less than one-sixteenth 
of an inch long. Their success in this occupation of hunting 
beetles — an unusual one to say the least — seems truly remark- 
able, and the men selected by Dr. Grenfell certainly lived up to 
his opinion of their cleverness and very much more than fulfilled 
my own expectations. 

A very large percentage of the beetles sent to me from Labrador 
have been feebly developed, and I have noticed the same condi- 
tion in collecting beetles, particularly water-beetles, above the 
tree line in the White Mountains. So it would seem that insect 
life in these cold countries does not attain the average and normal 
full development found in our warmer climates. 

Beetles are at once separated from all other insects by their 
hard shell and elytra, two horny wing covers meeting on the back 
in a straight line and covering the real wings, which, like those of 
flies and wasps, are formed of delicate membranes. In some beetles 
these real wings are only feebly developed, 
being but little used, and a few species have 
no true wings at all, but only the hard wing 
covers. 

More than one-third of all the known Lab- 
rador beetles belong to one family (Carabidae) . 
The species of this family are carnivorous, 
feeding on other forms of animal life, and 
are commonly called ground beetles, as they 
are usually found upon the surface of the 
ground, under stones, logs, or dead leaves, 
or around the roots of plants, in moss, and 
in similar places. The Labrador forms are 
all of dark colours, though a few have a 
Fig. 19. metallic lustre, and nearly all are of graceful 

Carabus chamissonis. form. 

A typical Labrador beetle of this family is 
shown in Figure 19. It is an opaque black insect a little over half 
an inch long, and it is known to scientists as Carabus chamissonis 
Fisch. This beetle, like a great many others of the Labrador species, 
is found in Alaska, and above the tree line on Mount Washington. 
It occurs also in Greenland. 

A large number of the beetles of Labrador are generally distrib- 




APPENDIX I 



469 




Fig. 20. 
Pelophila ulkef. 



uted throughout the northern part of America, occurring through- 
out Canada, on the shores of Lake Superior, and on our high moun- 
tains, both the White Mountains and the 
Rockies. Several of them are found in the 
Arctic regions of Europe and Asia as well. It 
is not strange that forms of life sufficiently hardy 
and sturdy to live in these far northern coun- 
tries have been vigorous enough to spread over 
such a large territory. 

The insect represented in Figure 20 (Pelo- 
phila ulkei Horn), on the other hand, is, so far 
as known, peculiar to the Labrador country 
and the Hudson Bay region, though a closely 
allied form is found in Alaska. The Labrador 
species is about three-eighths of an inch long, 
and, though entirely black, is of peculiarly grace- 
ful form. It is quite flat, and slender and very 
shining, and has several distinct punctures and 
tubercles upon the wing covers. Another beetle 
of the same genus (Pelophila rudis Lee.) is also found in Lab- 
rador, though it is very rare. It is about the same size as the 
former species, but the outer border of the wing cases is dark red. 
The mere difference of colour does not, of course, make it a different 
species, but these two beetles can easily be separated in this way, 
without recourse to more scientific distinctions. 

Several of the Labrador Carabidse belong to the genera Ptero- 
stichus and Amara, and are proportionately more elongate and 
narrower than the two beetles illustrated. 
Most of these species are of blackish colours, 
but there is one kind (Amara similis Kiiby) 
which is often metallic green or purple on the 
upper side of the body, with reddish legs. 
Amara similis is another one of the Labra- 
dor forms found in Mount Washington, and 
it has recently been found in the Green 
Mountains of Vermont. 

In a region where there are so many 
pools and ponds and so much water, we find 
that water-beetles are very common indeed. 
These belong mostly to the family Dytis- 
cidas, and are, like the ground-beetles, car- 
nivorous, feeding on tadpoles, aquatic insects, 
My desire to obtain two particular members of 
this family was what first interested me in Labrador insects. 

One of these beetles (Agabus arcticus Payk) is shown in Figure 21. 




Fig. 21. 
Agabus arcticu 

and small fish. 



470 



APPENDIX I 



It was first described from Lapland, and is very common in Lab- 
rador, but occurs nowhere else in America. It is a narrow, slender 
insect one-quarter of an inch long, yellowish brown, with the head 
and a band across the thorax (or middle portion of the body) 
black. The wing cases are quite rough and uneven. 

The other beetle which 1 
sought in the beginning from 
my Labrador friends (A gabus 
infuscatus Aube) is appar- 
ently even more common 
there than the one in the 
illustration. It has been re- 
corded from Mount Wash- 
ington and Lake Superior, 
but it is certainly not com- 
mon at either of these points. 
It is shorter and more robust 
than A gabus arcticus; the 
wing covers are brown, the 
head and thorax black. 

The large water-beetle 
shown in the next figure (No. 
22 Dytiscus dauricus Gebl) 
is one of the largest of the 
Labrador beetles, being an 
inch and a quarter long. It 
is greenish black, with the 
borders of the thorax and of the wing covers yellow. The under side 
of the body is yellow, with several black lines and markings. The 
beetles of the genus Dytiscus are probably the most highly devel- 
oped of all beetles. The males have the three basal joints of the 
front tarsi (the last segment of the leg) enormously dilated and 
enlarged into a large circular disk, the under side of which is cov- 
ered with a large number of palettes, some large, some small. The 
middle legs are similarly modified, but to a less degree. These 
disks are of use in enabling the beetle to cling to objects, and are 
probably also very sensitive organs. The females do not have 
these disks at all, but, on the other hand, they often have deep 
grooves or furrows extending longitudinally halfway or more along 
the wing covers. 

While speaking of water-beetles, it is interesting to note that 
they all possess real wings and are capable of flying great distances. 
In countries where there are artificial lights, the beetles are often 
attracted to them and are sometimes found many miles away from 
any water. 




Fig. 22. 
Dytiscus dauricus. 



APPENDIX I 



471 







Fig. 23. 

Silpha lapponica. 



The next beetle which is shown (Silpha lapponica Hbst., Fig. 23) 
belongs to a family whose members are scavengers feeding on decay- 
ing animal matter. This beetle is very common in Labrador, 
living, no doubt, on dead fish. As seen in the illustration, it is 
rather a square-shaped beetle, black, covered 
with a yellowish pubescence. It is about 
five-eighths of an inch long. The wing cases 
are covered with very prominent small tu- 
bercles arranged in rows; the antennae, or 
feelers, are thickened at the end as in other 
allied forms. Silpha lapponica occurs nearly 
everywhere in North America except in the 
southeastern states. It is an inhabitant of 
Europe also, but there it is confined to the 
Arctic regions. 

In general the Arctic species are more in- 
clined to extend toward the temperate 
climates to the south, here in America, than 
in Europe. The northerly and southerly di- 
rection of our American mountain ranges 
enables the insect forms of the two climates to maintain a geograph- 
ical connection and specific identity. In Europe, the mountains 
running from east to west have tended to form a definite boundary 
for both Arctic and southern species, so that there the allied forms 
of the two regions have either remained distinct or become so, 
through separation from one another. This interesting fact was 
pointed out by Mr. Schwarz some years ago. 

Another Labrador beetle quite generally distributed in Europe, 
Asia, and America, through commerce, is the "bacon beetle" 
(Dermestes lardarius Linn. , Fig. 24) . The beetle 
is about one-third of an inch long and brown- 
ish black, with a yellow band extending across 
the front of the wing cases. Its larva lives on 
preserved animal food products, such as hams, 
bacon, old cheese, and in dried skins, hair, etc. 
The last two of Mr. Joutel's figures represent 
two members of the family Cerambycidse. 
Both of these beetles are quite large, and have 
very long antenna?, or feelers, like the other 
species of this family. 

Criocephalus agrestis Kirby (Fig. 25) is a 
long, narrow, brownish beetle varying consid- 
erably in size, with two or three curious depres- 
sions in the thorax, and two longitudinal ridges extending along 
each wing case. The species is found generally in the northern 




Fig. 24. 
Dermestes lardarius 



472 



APPENDIX I 




Fig. 25. 
Criocephalus agrestis. 



parts of our continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its larva 

feeds on the wood of living pine 
trees, boring its way out to the 
surface. 

Pachyta liturata Kirby (Fig. 26) 
is not so common as the preced- 
ing, but is found over practically 
the same wide territory. It is 
much shorter, being only three- 
quarters of an inch long, and the 
sides of the body are not parallel, 
as in that species. The wing 
cases are light yellow, faintly 
marked with black, and when 
folded the insect is very much 
wider and thicker at the middle 
of the body than at either extrem- 
ity. On each side margin of the thorax is a small spine. 

Beetles belonging to several other families besides those I have 

mentioned are found in Labrador. Byrrhus Americanus Lee, 

a small, convex, silky, greenish black beetle 

was taken by Professor Packard on the 

stems of the "Labrador tea," and several 

specimens of this and another smaller, close- 
ly allied kind have been sent to me. The 

beetles of the family Byrrhidae are common 

in northern climates, living in mossy places, 

around the roots of plants, etc. 

Then there are some small snapping 

beetles of the family Elateridae, and some 

Buprestidae (whose larvae are wood-borers). 

Also some species of weevils which are 

bark-borers, and a few beetles which we 

might expect to find upon the blossoms of 

plants. The regular leaf and plant beetles, 

however, are conspicuous by their absence, 

though very likely some of them may be 

found in Labrador. None were found by 

Dr. Packard, and I have not received any. 

There is no doubt that there are many species of Labrador 

beetles besides those already known. The additions made to former 

records by Dr. Grenf ell's friends show this clearly enough, and if 

these men continue the search, we can probably look for many 

more important captures from this very interesting region. 




Fig. 26. 
Pachyta liturata. 



II 

THE MARINE CRUSTACEA 
By Mary J. Rathbun 

Crustacea are the most conspicuous invertebrate animals on 
the coast of Labrador by reason of their vast numbers, brilliant 
colours, swift movements, and diversity of form. The shallow 
water fauna is most abundant on the northern and southern shores, 
especially in Ungava Bay and from Hamilton Inlet southward 
and westward, where the harbours are enriched by the silt of 
numerous rivers and the land slopes gradually into the sea. Vari- 
ous kinds of Amphipods and other small forms swarm under the 
rocks and in masses of algae or in pools of water. Along most of 
the Atlantic coast, however, the bays are barren and rocky, with 
little seaweed, and there are few large streams carrying down 
sediment to form muddy and sandy bottoms ; the rocks at the 
water's edge are precipitous, supporting a narrow line of Fucus, 
which gives shelter only to the common sand-flea. In quiet eddies 
in the passages between the islands which fringe the coast, condi- 
tions are more favourable for the development of life. Here the 
dredge rewards the collector with spidery crabs and darting shrimps. 1 

The species found in Labrador are not numerous, nor are they 
peculiar to the peninsula, but in general range from Cape Cod to 
Greenland, while many extend to Europe or are Arctic in distri- 
bution, in not a few cases reaching into Bering Sea and the North 
Pacific Ocean. 

The common shore-crab, or rock-crab (Cancer irroratus), of the 
New England coast is also the shore-crab of Labrador, but has not 
been found north of Hamilton Inlet. It occurs frequently under 
stones in the Strait of Belle Isle. Occasionally it is caught and 
eaten by the natives. The shell is broadly oval, with nine saw- 
teeth on each side, and is speckled with fine red or brown dots; 
the claws are stout and similar in size and shape, and there are 
four pairs of smooth, flattened walking feet. 

Three other crabs inhabit the coasts of Labrador, but live offshore 
in depths varying from a few fathoms to fifty or more. They 
belong to the group popularly known as spider-crabs, on account 
of their relatively long and slender legs, but differ widely from the 

1 Cf . Packard, The Labrador Coast. 
473 



474 



APPENDIX II 



common round-bodied spider-crabs of the eastern coast of the 
United States. The largest (Chionoecetes opilio) has a rough, 
flattened back, semicircular behind and narrowed in front, with 
a short bifid beak and very long, flat legs armed with small spines. 
This crab attains a large size, sometimes having a span of over 
two and a half feet, with the shell itself five inches in width. The 
smaller species are much alike, and are known as toad-crabs, from 
a fancied resemblance to that batrachian ; their shells are two or 
three inches long, shield-shaped, one having lateral wings on the 
forward half {Hyas coarctatus), while the other has not (Hyas 
araneus) ; the beak is short and broad, and split through the 
middle. Like most of the family to which they belong, they 
have the habit of attaching to their backs foreign substances, like 
seaweed, bryozoans, and sponges, which are held in place by 
hooked hairs on the surface of the crab. In this way the carapace, 
and the legs also, may become entirely hidden by a miniature 
forest which serves to protect the crab from its enemies. Never- 
theless, many individuals find their way into the stomachs of 
fishes. This is true not only of crabs and shrimps, but of smaller 
crustaceans, such as schizopods and amphipods, which are con- 
sumed in great quantities by cod and other large fish as well as by 
whales and shore-birds. 

Only two hermit-crabs are known on the coast, but in favourable 
spots they are abundant from low-water mark to perhaps fifty 
fathoms. They are quite different in appearance and behaviour 
from true erabs. The eyes are not incased in sockets or orbits, 
the antennae are long, the claws are very unequal in size, — the 
right (in these species) always the larger, — and the walking legs 
are four in number. The hinder part of the body is soft, tapering, 
and asymmetrical, as it has to accommodate itself to the shape of 
the gasteropod shell which forms the crab's dwelling. Each indi- 
vidual appropriates a dead shell, and is never seen without it 
except when the increasing size of the inmate compels it to seek a 
larger tenement. The transfer from one shell to another is made 
with striking rapidity, the little creature being very active and 
wary and on the lookout for its stronger enemies. Although it 
crawls about with the body covered by the shell, and the limbs 
extruded, yet it is capable of retreating entirely into its domicile 
and closing the aperture with its claws. The two Labrador species 
are very similar ; one {Pagurus pubescens) has claws covered with 
stout spines and with hairs which retain particles of mud and sand, 
while the claws of the other (Pagurus krtfyeri) are rough, with finer 
and more numerous spines, and are almost devoid of hair ; there is 
a difference, too, in the shape of the left or smaller claw : the outer 
surface of the prismatic hand-joint is narrow and lanceolate in 



APPENDIX II 475 

P. pubescens, and about four times as long as wide, while in P. 
krftyeri it is obliquely triangular, between two and three times as 
long as wide. The eyes of P. pubescens are longer than those of 
P. krffyeri, so that the slender scale at the base of the outer antennae 
does not reach the end of the eye in the former but does in the 
latter. By far the easiest way to distinguish these two forms is 
by the colour pattern; in P. pubescens the bands of red on the 
walking feet are disposed across the middle of each segment, while 
in P. kr0yeri they run across the articulations between the segments. 

The common lobster of New England extends to southern 
Labrador and occurs in abundance on the coasts of the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence. It has been found as far north as Henley Harbour 
(52° north lat.), and extends perhaps a few miles farther. Its 
absence along the Atlantic coast of Labrador is explained by the 
lower temperature produced by the Arctic current, which flows 
southward close to the shore. While many lobsters are trapped 
in the shallow bays of the southern coast, the catch is not sufficient 
to supply a cannery. The lobsters appear to be all fished out 
when the traps are first set, and various attempts to operate can- 
neries have had to be abandoned. 1 

There are fourteen species of shrimps known on the Labrador 
coast, varying in length from a half inch to four or five inches. 
They agree in having the abdomen or posterior part of large size, 
and generally extended to the full length, though sometimes bent 
at a right angle instead of being folded up under the thorax, as in 
the crabs. The shrimps are further marked by a spreading tail 
fan composed of the terminal segment, or tail, and the two pairs 
of appendages attached to the preceding segment. In one of 
the most abundant species (Sclerocrangon boreas) , of a pale brownish 
red colour with a chestnut stripe along the sides, the skin is hard 
and rough, the body is stout in front, tapering posteriorly, the tiny 
claws which arm the first pair of trunk legs are of curious shape 
peculiar to the family Cragonidae, the palmar portion being oblong 
and bearing a small spine in place of the well-known thumb or 
immovable finger of the lobster and most shrimps, while a slender 
movable finger lies transversely or across the end of the palm. 

One of the largest shrimps is Pandalus montagui, which is abun- 
dant especially in weeds on a clear, pebbly bottom ; it is compressed 
laterally and armed with a long, slender, swordlike rostrum or beak, 
with a row of sharp spines on its middle line; the antennae may 
be as long as the rest of the animal, and the legs are all slender 
without conspicuous claws. The red colour which plays a promi- 

1 Of. Herrick, The American Lobster, in Bull. U. S. Fish Comm. 
for 1895, pp. 14-15. 



476 APPENDIX II 

nent part in all these shrimps is here arranged in obliquely trans- 
verse lines or bars on the body, and in specks, blotches, or rings 
on the legs. 

In the numerous species of Spirontocaris, the body is shaped 
as in the preceding, but the beak is much shorter and variously 
shaped and toothed, but always thin and compressed. The first 
pair of legs have small but well-defined claws ; those of the second 
pair are notable in being very slender and in having the wrist or 
antepenultimate segment divided into many small pieces jointed 
together and tipped with a minute claw. 

Besides the true shrimps there swarm at the surface numbers 
of transparent schizopods, or cleft-footed shrimps, known as 
Mysis, which swim in immense shoals, and form the main food of 
the sea-trout. These shrimps are of small size, an inch or less 
in length, with large, dark eyes, and have seven instead of five 
pairs of trunk-legs, devoid of claws, but each provided with an 
appendage adapted for swimming. The eggs are carried by the 
female in a marsupial pouch beneath, which has suggested the 
name of "opossum-shrimp." 

The Cumacea are still smaller crustaceans, half an inch or less 
in length, distinguished by having the anterior half very robust, 
the posterior half slender, the eyes sessile, not stalked as in the 
crabs and shrimps, the carapace leaving five segments of the trunk 
exposed, the antepenultimate segment of the body the longest, 
the tail fan composed of three branches. They are abundant in 
sand at the depth of a few fathoms. 

The Phyllocarida, or leaf-shrimps, so called on account of the 
laminar or leaflike expansions with which their legs are provided, 
are represented by Nebalia bipes, which was dredged by Dr. Pack- 
ard at the mouth of Henley Harbour in four to twenty fathoms. 
This little creature, less than an inch in length, is most remarkable 
for the great size of its ancestors, whose paleozoic remains measure 
nearly two feet. 

The Amphipods, or sand-fleas, are by far the most abundant 
of the Crustacea, both in species and individuals. They are found 
on the sand near high-water mark, in seaweed, and among rocks 
in shallow water, and may be dredged at any depth. None is of 
large size ; individuals range from about one-eighth of an inch to 
an inch. Many of them hop like fleas. Others move rapidly 
while lying flat. They act as scavengers, often nearly consuming 
a dead fish before it can be hauled in. They are sessile-eyed, 
laterally compressed, somewhat crescent-shaped, with rounded 
backs, and usually of stout build. An exception is the slim skele- 
ton-shrimp, Caprella, which clings to finely branched seaweed 
and is so flexible that it can bend itself into a ring. Another 



APPENDIX II 477 

slender form (Ericthonius difformis) inhabits the delicate tubes of 
a hydroid, while a third {Hyperia medusarum) , as its name signi- 
fies, lives in the stomach cavity of a jellyfish. The Euthemisto 
is a surface-swimming amphipod, and in sufficient numbers forms 
an acceptable meal for hungry fishes, as examination of their 
stomachs has proven. Gammarus locusta, the common amphipod, 
or scud, is the most noticeable species of the shore, being very 
abundant between tide-marks. These creatures are of an olive 
brown or light chestnut-brown colour, much like that of the Fucus 
they inhabit. They skip about on their sides, and on entering 
the water swim rapidly with the back downward or sideways. 

The isopods, unlike the amphipods, are flattened above, and 
are usually of a uniform width throughout their length ; in many 
cases all their legs are about the same size, whence the name 
"isopod." They also have sessile eyes and are usually of small 
size, the largest ones in the Labrador fauna being the two Mesi- 
dotea, which are about three inches long and taper at the posterior 
end to a sharp point. The most slender form is Arcturus baffini, 
which may attain a length of nearly two inches, with antenna? 
even longer. Several species are parasitic, as the fish-louse, JEqa 
psora, which lives on the skin of the cod and halibut ; the shrimp 
parasite, Phryxus abdominalis, a hemispherical, distorted little 
lump of an isopod occurring under the abdomen of various species 
of Spirontocaris and Pandalus; and a similar but smaller form 
which attaches itself to the schizopod, Mysis oculata. The last 
two isopods exhibit great sexual dimorphism, the females being 
vastly larger than the males and of wholly different appearance. 
Other parasites belong to different orders of Crustacea. 

The copepods live mostly on the external surface or in the gill 
cavity of fishes, to which they cling by means of claws and sucking 
disks. They are represented by Lepeophtheirus salmonis, parasitic 
on salmon and sea-trout. This species is distinguished in the 
female by a metallic lustre and by long, slender egg strings. An- 
other species is Lerncea branchialis, variety sigmoidea, in which the 
female is fixed in one position for life, having lost all trace of appen- 
dages save those which fasten her to the host, while the male is 
reduced to minute size, and, although capable of motion, adheres 
to some part of the body of the female. 

Occasionally a hermit-crab is infested with one of the Rhizo- 
cephala (Peltogaster) , parasites which are allied to the Cirripedia, 
or barnacles, but are degenerate forms with saclike, unsegmented 
bodies without limbs ; their antennae are modified into rootlike 
processes, which bury themselves in the host, from which they 
derive nourishment. 

The barnacles reported from Labrador all belong to the sessile 



478 APPENDIX II 

variety known as acorn-shells. They are found here, as every- 
where, incrusting stones, wharves, shells, and other objects. The 
body of the animal is surrounded by a shell, composed of six or 
more plates, and in the shape of an irregular cone with the top 
cut off; the base of the cone is attached to the object incrusted, 
while the small end is closed by a shelly operculum which may be 
opened at will. The feathery tentacles, which are modified feet, 
are then extended and kept constantly waving. The smallest 
species, Balanus balanoides, is the commonest, and is known as the 
rock-barnacle. A large species, Coronula diadema, two inches in 
diameter and with a very thick shell, lives on the surface of whales. 
Balanus porcatus has been found fossil at Hopedale and Caribou 
Island in beds of sandy clay and coarse gravel which are exposed 
between tide-marks and extend beneath the water. 

It seems not inappropriate to include in our list two forms which 
live in pools of fresh water close to the sea ; one of these is a schizo- 
pod, Mysis relicta, which also inhabits Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, 
and the lakes of northern Europe. It is so closely related to a 
certain marine form as to suggest a common origin. At Indian 
Tickle abound the "fairy shrimps," or branchiopods, in which the 
gills or branchiae are situated on the feet, the eyes are large and 
stalked, and the tail is long and slender. These shrimps are able 
to live in pools which are dry for long periods, as the eggs, when 
dried, preserve their vitality for an indefinite time. They swim 
with the back downward, and the gills are bright orange. 



Ill 

THE MOLLUSKS 

By Charles W. Johnson 

The summer visitor, or even the native Labradorian, can know 
little about the mollusks of Labrador unless he be provided with 
suitable appliances for dredging in moderate depths of water. 
The great mass of pack-ice which bounds the shore for a large por- 
tion of the year is a destructive agency, preventing the possibility 
of existence of what, in more southern latitudes, is termed the 
littoral fauna. Beyond the area affected by the ice, however, 
there is a rich and varied fauna, with constant surprises awaiting 
the collector with suitable facilities for dredging. Not only is 
the number of species quite large, but these are also, in many 
cases, individually abundant. Occasionally one of the larger, rare 
gasteropods finds its way into the dredge, alluring one to further 
activity, with the prospect of new species in this comparatively 
neglected region. The fauna is Arctic, the southern boundary of 
the Arctic province being the limit of floating ice, which on the 
Atlantic coast of North America extends to southern Newfoundland. 
Many of the species are circumpolar in their distribution, or rep- 
resented by closely related forms or local variations, having un- 
doubtedly a common origin. 

Several annotated catalogues of the mollusks of Labrador have 
been published. Professor A. S. Packard, in 1863 {Canadian 
Naturalist and Geologist, Vol. VIII, p. 412), published "a list of 
the animals dredged near Caribou Island, southern Labrador, 
during July and August, I860." The list contains seventy-eight 
species of mollusks. In 1867, Professor Packard {Memoirs Boston 
Soc. Nat. History, Vol. I, p. 262) published in connection with a 
paper on the glacial phenomena of Labrador "a view of the recent 
invertebrate fauna" in which are recorded one hundred and eight 
species of mollusks. Miss Katherine J. Bush, in 1883 {Proceed- 
ings U. S. Nat. Museum, Vol. VI, p. 236), recorded seventy-nine 
species obtained by the expedition under Mr. W. A. Stearns in 
1882. The collection was made at various points between 
Forteau Bay and Dead Island. Again, in 1891, Professor Packard, 
in his work, The Labrador Coast, published a list of one hundred 
and twenty-nine species, including all those in the previous lists. 

479 



480 APPENDIX III 

There are many other works bearing on the Mollusca of Labrador, 
including Gould's Invertebrata of Massachusetts (2 ed.), 1870; Sars's 
Mollusca Regionis Arcticce Norvegice, 1878; Friele's Den Norske 
Nordhavs Expedition, Mollusca; etc. 

The following remarks are based partly on the above papers, 
and partly on a collection of shells made by Mr. Owen Bryant 
during the summer of 1908. A partial study of these adds several 
species to the fauna. Very little is said by writers in regard to 
the mollusks of this region being used for food. The common 
clam (Mya arenaria) is reported plentiful in the more southern 
portions, but, "living in deeper water, it is no doubt more difficult 
to obtain than in more southern latitudes, while in the more north- 
ern portions of the coast it is probably rare or wanting. The 
truncated clam {Mya truncata), a closely related species, but 
apparently less abundant, extends farther northward than the 
common clam. The habit of these two species of burying deep 
in the mud and sand, with only their long siphons extending to 
the surface, makes it practically impossible to obtain them by 
dredging, while flats exposed at low tide and subject to freezing 
would be too cold for their existence. A smaller shell related to 
the Mya is the little nestling shell (Saxicava arctica), which, living 
in various-shaped cavities in the rocks, etc., is therefore frequently 
very irregular in form. They usually measure about an inch, 
though sometimes reach an inch and a half in length. 

There are two scallops which frequent the waters of this region. 
The great scallop (Pecten magellanicus) , locally known by the name 
of "pussel," is found in the Strait of Belle Isle. It is excellent 
eating, the large adductor muscle being removed and fried in lard 
or butter. The Iceland scallop {Pecten islandica) is found along 
the entire coast in from ten to fifty fathoms; it is also doubtless 
good eating, but more difficult to obtain. The edible mussel 
{Mytilus edulis) is reported from the entire coast ; it spins numer- 
ous silken threads called the byssus, by which it attaches itself to 
various objects. In some places it is extensively used for food, 
usually boiled and pickled in spiced vinegar. The horse mussel 
{Modiolus modiolus) is found in the more southern part ; it also spins 
a byssus and nestles in chinks and cavities. The great seaweed, 
or kelp {Laminaria digitata), frequently attaches to this shell 
and, after attaining its great size, the force of currents and waves 
tears the shell from its mooring and carries it to other places, or it 
is ruthlessly cast upon the beach to die. Two other mussels are 
commonly dredged, the black mussel {Modiolaria nigra), and the 
discordant mussel {Modiolaria discors), with part of the valves 
ribbed and part smooth. 

Two species of cockles, or heart-shells, are commonly associated 



APPENDIX III 481 

in from ten to fifty fathoms. The Greenland cockle (Serripes 
gronlandicus) is about three inches in length, nearly smooth, 
with only a few obsolete ribs on the ends ; the young is thin, and 
beautifully mottled with reddish purple. The hairy heart-shell 
(Cardium ciliatum) is about two inches in length, with about 
thirty-six acute radiating ribs on each valve. The shell is covered 
with a yellowish epidermis, forming rows of stiff bristles on the 
edge of the ribs. The common cockle of Europe (Cardium edule) 
is largely used for food. It is probable that both of these are also 
edible. Perhaps the most common shell of the coast is Macoma 
calcarea, quantities being brought up with each dredge. When on 
a muddy or sandy bottom, the thin epidermis is usually eroded, 
giving the shell a chalky appearance. Another characteristic 
bivalve of the more northern waters is the little brown clam, 
Astarte, of which four or five species are to be found along the 
Labrador coast. They are about an inch to an inch and a quarter 
in length, somewhat triangular in form, thick, with prominent 
concentric ridges, and a dark brown epidermis. Related to Astarte 
is Venericardia borealis, which has radiating, instead of concentric, 
ridges. 

Other bivalves which are constantly being caught in the dredge 
are the little, round, glossy brown Nucula tenuis, the polished 
greenish brown Yoldia myalis, and the pointed Leda pernula with 
a greenish epidermis and fine concentric lines. This group can be 
readily recognized by having numerous minute teeth along the hinge. 
There are a number of other bivalves which are occasionally 
brought up by the dredge, including a group with thin, pearly shells, 
represented by Thracia myopsis, Pandora glacialis, and Lyonsia 
arenosa. 

Some of the rivers and streams of the interior contain the fresh- 
water clam, or pearl mussel (Margaritana margaritifera) , a species 
which is also found in northern Europe and Asia. It sometimes 
yields very handsome pearls, and I have seen a few beautiful ones, 
which were said to have come from Labrador. 

The Gastropoda, or the univalves, as they are often popularly 
called, slightly exceed the bivalves in the number of species. 
They seem, however, to be less abundant individually, especially 
the larger ones. The most prominent of the larger forms belong 
to the family Buccinidse, or whelks. The common whelk (Buc- 
cinum undatum) is found along the entire coast. In northern 
Europe, where this species is abundant, it forms an extensive 
article of food. They make an excellent soup; or boiled, until 
they can be easily removed from the shell, they can be either 
fried in fat until brown, or eaten with pepper and vinegar. There 
are six or seven other species of whelks on the Labrador coast, 
2i 



482 APPENDIX III 

including : Buccinum cyaneum, B. ciliatum, B. gouldi, B. donovan\ 
and B. tottenii, dredged in from five to thirty fathoms, and asso- 
ciated with Chrysodomus despectus, Tritonofusus kroyeri, variety 
cretaceus, and Tritonofusus spitzbergensis Reeve (Sipho lividus 
Morch). To these Mr. Bryant has added the true Tritonofusus 
islandicus and the large brown Beringius largillierti with its big 
protoconch. Trophon clathratus is a slender, waxy, white shell, 
with about twelve thin, elevated, longitudinal ribs, while between 
the ribs are numerous slight spiral lines. In almost every dredge, 
we find the little hairy-keeled shell, Trichotropis borealis, and 
equally common the small, cancellated Admete couthouyi, belong- 
ing to the family Cancellariidae. Another conspicuous group of 
shells, which may appropriately be called the little " tower-shells," 
is represented by three species, — Turritella erosa, T. reticulata, 
and Turritellopsis acicula. Professor Packard records a dozen 
species of Bela, little high-spired shells, the most northern repre- 
sentatives of the family Pleurotomidse. The little pearly Marga- 
ritas are quite common in some localities ; Margarita grcenlandica, 
M. cinerea, M. argentata, and M. helicina are the principal species. 
The sea-snails are represented by three species. Natica clausa is 
found in almost every haul of the dredge. It is readily distin- 
guished from the others by having a calcareous opercula, and the 
umbilicus entirely covered by a callus. Lunatia heros is recorded 
from the Strait of Belle Isle, and L. grcenlandica from fifteen fath- 
oms in Chateau Bay. A large and interesting shell is the Aporrhais 
occidentalism allied to the "pelican's foot" (Aporrhais pes-pelicani) 
of Europe, but having the lip entire and not lobed as in that 
species. It was dredged in numbers, at Gready and Egg harbours, 
in seven to twenty fathoms. Three species of limpets are also re- 
corded, Acmcea testudinalis, A. rubella, and Lepta cceca, the latter 
being the most plentiful. 

A remnant of the littoral fauna, of more southern regions, exists 
in the presence of a few species of the family Litorinidae. The 
''periwinkle," Littorina litorea, is reported by Stearns as rare; 
L. palliata is recorded from the Strait of Belle Isle, while L. rudis 
is not uncommon along the whole coast. Living in the crevices 
of the damp, spray-covered rocks, above the direct effects of the 
ice, they are able to withstand the Arctic conditions. 

Shells are frequently covered with a light pink or reddish col- 
oured, stony algae (Lithothamnion polymorphum) , frequently 
referred to as " Nullipores." Clinging to the rocks and shells 
covered with this reddish growth, we find the little red chitons, Tra- 
chydermon rubrum and Tonicella marmorea, so closely resembling it 
in colour as to almost escape detection. This was especially notice- 
able in the collection made by Mr. Bryant at Gready Harbour, in 



APPENDIX III 483 

twelve fathoms, where the shells were quite thickly covered with 
the red algae. Seventeen specimens of both species of the red 
chitons were obtained. The chitons are now placed in a separate 
order, Amphineura, and represent the lowest type of the Mollusca. 
They have a shell consisting normally of eight plates, hence the 
name Polyplacophora, the many-plate bearer, is applied to the 
most important of the two suborders. 

A group of beautiful creatures when living, but very difficult to 
preserve, are the Nudibranchs, or the naked-gilled Mollusca. The 
large and handsome Dendronotus arborescens, with a row of tree- 
like gills on each side of the back, and branching appendages on the 
head, was obtained by Professor Packard in Henley Harbour, 
at a depth of four fathoms. A species of Eolis is also reported 
from the same harbour, and Coryphella diver sa from L'Anse au 
Loup. A group of small shells, which are usually present in each 
haul of the dredge, are known as Tectibranchs. They are re- 
lated to the Nudibranchs, but have the gills covered, and usually 
a shell varying considerably in form in the different families. 
Cylichna alba, Retusa pertenuis, Philine lima, Scaphander punctos- 
triata, and Diaphana hiemalis are the principal species. 

Each haul of the dredge brings in many other forms of animal 
life besides Mollusca. The large brachiopod, Hypothyris psit- 
tacea, is frequently obtained in from eight to fifteen fathoms, while 
attached to the shells are a number of species of the beautiful 
incrusting Polyzoa, or Bryozoa, and the minute Foraminifera. 

Among the interesting objects of the more open Arctic sea are 
the little Pteropods, or wing shells. Packard reports great numbers 
of the little Arctic pteropod Limacina helicina off Cape Webuc, 
and says they are like winged sweet-peas, the shape of the body 
and colour suggesting the resemblance. Another species, Clione 
limacina, with long wings and bright red tints, belongs to the shell- 
less group Gymnosomata. They sometimes appear in such num- 
bers as to actually discolour the surface of the water. They are 
said to afford food for the Greenland whale. The pteropods 
usually come to the surface in the greatest numbers during the 
night, and can be caught by using a towing-net. 

The land mollusks of Labrador are few and scarce. The slug 
Agriolimax agrestis is reported by Packard from Strawberry 
Harbour, together with the little Pupilla hoppii, Vitrina angelicas, 
and Euconulus fulva, variety fabricii. They occur under spruce 
bark and chips in the damp verdure, and represent the few truly 
Arctic species found also in southern Greenland. 



IV 

LIST OF THE MAMMALS OF LABRADOR 
By Outram Bangs 

At Dr. Grenf ell's request I have prepared the following list of 
the mammals of the Labrador peninsula. As I had before written 
a list of the mammals of this region, 1 it was very simple to compile 
the present one, which is merely the old one corrected and brought 
up to date. 

In this list political divisions of the region are disregarded, and 
the area considered includes the whole Labrador peninsula lying to 
the northward of a line joining the mouth of the river St. Lawrence 
and the foot of James Bay. 

I am able to say very little about the habits of the various forms 
of mammalian life, occurring in the great Labrador peninsula, 
knowing them myself only from museum specimens, but under each 
species or subspecies the distribution, so far as it is known, is given, 
the first reference is cited, and where a form was described from 
Labrador the type locality is mentioned. 

I believe the list to be practically complete ; the species are all 
given by the names in current use by the best system atists. 
I trust it may prove of some help to those interested in the biota of 
the great peninsula. 

1. Balcena glacialis Bonnat. 

Balcena glacialis (Right whale) Bonnat. Tab. Encycl. Ceta- 

logil., p. 3. 1789. 
Formerly common on east and south coasts, now nearly exter- 
minated. 

2. Balcena mysticetus Linn. Bow head; Greenland whale. 
Balama mysticetus Linn. Fauna Suecica, Vol. II, p. 16. 1761. 

Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait, along the edge of the ice. 

3. Megaptera nodosa Bonnat. Humpbacked whale. 
Balcena nodosa Bonnat. Tab. Encycl. Cetalogil., p. 5. 1789. 

Common on south and east coasts. 

1 American Naturalist, Vol. XXXII, No. 379, July, 1898, pp. 489- 
507. 

484 






APPENDIX IV 485 

4. Balcenoptera acuto-rostrata Lacep. Little-piked whale. 
Balcenoptera acuto-rostrata Lacep. Hist. Nat. Cet., Vol. I, 

p. 197. 1803-4. 
Common close inshore along the east and north coasts. 

5. Balcenoptera physalus Linn. Common finback. 
Balcena physalus Linn'. Syst. Nat., Ed. X, Vol. I, p. 75. 1858. 

Common along the coasts. 

6. Balcenoptera borealis Lesson. Pollock whale. 
Balcenoptera borealis Lesson. Hist. Nat. Cet., p. 342. 1828. 

A rare species. 

7. Balcenoptera mtjsculus Linn. Sulphur-bottom. 

Balcena musculus Linn. Syst. Nat., Ed. X, Vol. I, p. 76. 1758. 
Common all along the coast. 

8. Physeter macrocephalus Linn. Sperm whale. 

Physeter macrocephalus Linn. Syst. Nat., Ed. X, Vol. I, p. 
76. 1758. 
Very rare in Labrador waters, one record by Packard. 

9. Hyperoodon ampullatum Forster. Bottle-nosed whale. 
Balcena ampullatum Forster. Kalm's Travels in North Am^ 

Vol. I, p. 18. 1770. 
Common on the northern coast. 

10. Delphinapterus leucas Pallas. White, porpoise. 
Delphinus leucas Pallas. "It. iii, p. 84, t. iv." 

Common everywhere along the Labrador coasts. 

11. Monodon monoceras Linn. Narwhale. 
Monodon monoceras Linn. Ed. X, p. 75. 1758. 

Common all along the Labrador coasts. 

12. Orcinus orca Linn. Killer. 

Delphinus orca Linn. Syst. Nat., Ed. X, Vol. I, p. 77. 1758. 
Common on the east coast. 

13. Globicephala melas Traill. Black fish; pilot whale. 
Delphinus melas Traill, Nicholson's Journal, Vol. XXII, p. 81. 

1809. 
Recorded from Newfoundland, probably occurring on the south 
coasts of Labrador, a migratory species. 

14. PhoCcENA phoCcEna Linn. Harbour porpoise. 

Delphinus phoccena Linn. Syst. Nat., Ed. X, Vol. I, p. 77. 1758. 
Found commonly along the south and east coasts. 

15. Lagenorhynchus acutus Gray. Striped porpoise. 
Delphinus acutus Gray. Spicil. Zool., p. 2. 1828. 

Occurs along south and east coasts. 

16. Delphinus delphis Linn. Common dolphin. 

Delphinus delphis Linn. Syst. Nat., Ed. X, Vol. I, p. 77. 1758. 
South and east coasts. 

17. Tursiops truncatus Montagu. Bottle-nosed dolphin. 



486 APPENDIX IV 

Delphinus truncatus Montagu. Memos. Wernerian Soc, Vol. 
Ill, p. 75. 1821. 
Common on the south and east coasts. 

I am under the greatest obligation to Dr. Glover M. Allen for 
helping me prepare this list of the Labrador cetaceans. Many of 
the species were observed and identified by him during a cruise 
along the coast in the summer of 1906. 

18. Paralces americanus Clinton. Moose. 

Cervus americanus Clinton. Letters on Nat. Hist, and Int. 
Resources of New York, p. 193. 1822. 
Low is in doubt whether or not the moose enters the south- 
western limits of Labrador. It is occasionally killed in the region 
about Lake Edward, Quebec. 

19. Rangifer caribou Gml. Woodland caribou. 

Cervus tarandus y. caribou Gmelin. Syst. Nat., Vol. I, p. 177. 
1789. 

Reported by Low to now be very rare, — almost exterminated, 
— though formerly abundant throughout the wooded regions. 
Low also says that the destruction of the woodland caribou has 
resulted in the dying off, from actual starvation, of a large propor- 
tion of the interior Indians, which, in its turn, has caused a great 
increase in the numbers of the fur-bearing animals. 

Mr. Ernest Doane took specimens at Black Bay in September, 
1898, and sent me three fine adult females and a male. 

20. Rangifer arcticus Richardson. Barren-ground caribou. 
Cervus tarandus var. a. arctica Richardson. F. B. A., Vol. I, 

p. 241. 1829. 
According to Low, the barren-ground caribou still ranges in 
immense herds over the barrens and semi-barrens, south to the 
Mealy Mountains, between Hamilton Inlet and Sandwich Bay. 

21. Sciurus hudsonicus hudsonicus Erxl. Northern pine squir- 

rel; red squirrel. 
Sciurus vulgaris c. hudsonicus Erxl. Mammalia, p. 416. 1777. 
Type Locality. Hudson Strait. 
Common in the wooded regions, and extending into the semi- 
barrens. Goldthwaite took specimens at Rigolet. Turner took 
specimens at Fort Chimo and at Forks, Northwest River, and 
Doane sent me a large series from Black Bay. 

22. Arctomys ignavus Bangs. Labrador woodchuck. 
Arctomys ignavus Bangs. Proc. New Eng. Zool. Club, Vol. I, 

p. 13. 1899. 
Type Locality. Black Bay, Labrador. 
Common throughout southern Labrador, in the region about 
Black Bay and L'Anse au Loup. 

Low speaks of a woodchuck as common in the country between 



APPENDIX IV 487 

Lake St. John and the East Main River ; this may possibly be an- 
other form, — Arctomys monax empetra Pallas. 

23. Sciuropterus sabrinus makkovikensis Sornborger. Labra- 

dor flying squirrel. 
Sciuropterus sabrinus makkovikensis Sornborger. Ottawa Nat- 
uralist, Vol. XIX, p. 48. June, 1900. 
Type Locality. Makkovik. 
Rather generally distributed throughout the wooded region, 
though apparently not common anywhere. The Labrador form 
is a very well-marked subspecies. 

24. Castor canadensis canadensis Kuhl. Canadian beaver. 
Castor canadensis Kuhl. Beitrage zur Zoologie, p. 64. 1820. 

Low says the beaver is common in the wooded regions, and 
extends into the semi-barrens, where food is found. I have seen no 
Labrador specimens. 

25. Mus norvegicus Erxleben. Brown rat; Norway rat. 
Mus norvegicus Erxleben. Syst. Reg. Anim., Vol. I, p. 381. 

1777. 
Doane took one Norway rat at Black Bay, November 30, 1899. 
This is the only specimen I ever saw from Labrador. I have never 
received specimens of the house mouse, Mus musculus Linn., from 
Labrador, though it must undoubtedly occur there. 

26. Peromyscus maniculatus manictjlatus Wagner. Labrador 

deer-mouse. 
Hesperomys maniculatus Wagner. Weigmann's Archiv., Vol. 

XI, p. 148. 184-5. 
Type Locality. "The Moravian settlements in Labrador." 
Common throughout the peninsula south at least to Hamilton 
Inlet. The Labrador deer-mouse, like many of its congeners, is apt 
to take up its abode in buildings and huts like the house mouse, and 
in Labrador seems to be much more abundant in such places than 
in the woods and among rocks. I have examined very large series 
of this species. 

27. Phenacomys latimanus Merriam. Small yellow-faced phena- 

comys. 
Phenacomys latimanus Merriam. North Am. Fauna, No. 2, 

p. 34. 1889. 
Type Locality. Fort Chimo, Ungava, Labrador. 
Probably of general distribution in the drier semi-barrens. 
Known from Labrador only by the specimens sent to Washington 
by Turner. 

28. Phenacomys celatus celatus Merriam. Large yellow-faced 

phenacomys. 
Phenacomys celatus Merriam, North Am. Fauna, No. 2, p. 33. 
1889. 



488 APPENDIX IV 

This northern form has, so far as I know, been taken in the Labra- 
dor peninsula only at Fort Chimo, Ungava, whence it ranges west 
at least to Godbout, Quebec. 

29. Phenacomys celatus crassus Bangs. South Labrador 

phenacomys. 
Phenacomys celatus crassus Bangs. Proc. New Eng. Zool. Club, 

Vol. II, p. 39. 1900. 
Type Locality. Rigolet, Labrador. 
This is a southern form occurring in the eastern forest belt from 
L'Anse au Loup north at least to Hamilton Inlet : it is much larger 
than true P. celatus, being the largest member of the genus yet known. 

30. Evotomys ungava Bailey. Ungava red-backed mouse. 
Evotomys ungava Bailey. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., p. 130. 1897. 
Type Locality. Fort Chimo, Labrador. 

Probably restricted to the barrens and semi-barrens. Turner 
reported the species to be abundant at Fort Chimo, but apparently 
did not send many specimens to Washington. 

The differences between this and the next species appear to be 
as great as between any two members of the genus Evotomys. 

31. Evotomys proteus Bangs. Hamilton Inlet red-backed mouse. 
Evotomys proteus Bangs. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., p. 137. 1897. 
Type Locality. Rigolet, Hamilton Inlet, Labrador. 

Very abundant at Hamilton Inlet, and probably throughout the 
wooded regions. Goldthwaite took a large series at Rigolet, and 
Doane found it very abundant in the woods, in the neighbourhood 
of Black Bay. 

32. Microtus pennsylvanicus labradorius Bailey. Small 

Labrador vole. 
Microtus pennsylvanicus labradorius Bailey. Proc. Biol. Soc. 

Wash., p. 88. April 30, 1898. 
Type Locality. Fort Chimo, Ungava, Labrador. 
This little vole probably occurs only in the barrens and semi- 
barrens. It can be told from M. enixus by its smaller size, shorter, 
more hairy tail, by its smaller, flatter skull, with shorter rostrum 
and nasals, and smaller, shorter, incisive foramina, differently 
shaped zygoma, and larger auditory bullae. There are, probably, 
colour differences also, but I have seen alcoholic specimens only. 
Turner took many specimens at Fort Chimo. 

33. Microtus enixus Bangs. Larger Labrador vole. 
Microtus enixus Bangs. Am. Nat., Vol. XXX, p. 105. 1896. 
Type Locality. Rigolet, Hamilton Inlet, Labrador. 

Probably common throughout all the wooded regions, its range 
extending north to the semi-barrens and meeting that of M. penn- 
sylvanicus labradorius. 

Goldthwaite took a large series at the type locality. I have 



APPENDIX IV 489 

examined three specimens in the collection of the Geological Survey 
of Canada, from "50 miles north of Fort George." Turner took 
quite a number at Fort Chimo, and Doane secured a large series 
at Black Bay. 

34. Microtus chrotorrhinus rarus Bangs. Labrador rock 

vole. 
Microtus chrotorrhinus rarus Bangs. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 

Vol. XII, p. 187. 1898. 
Type Locality. Black Bay, Labrador. 
Known only from Black Bay, where Doane secured a good series. 

35. Fiber zibethicus aquilonius Bangs. Labrador muskrat. 
Fiber zibethicus aquilonius Bangs. Proc. New Eng. Zool. Club, 

Vol. I, p. 11. 1899. 
Type Locality. Rigolet, Hamilton Inlet. 
Common throughout the southern wooded region, and found, 
though probably not in such abundance, north to the barren and 
to Fort Chimo. 

36. Synaptomys inntjitus innuitus True. True's bog lemming. 
Mictomys innuitus True. Proc. Nat. Mus., Vol. XVII, No. 

999. Advance sheet. April 26, 1894. 
Type Locality. Fort Chimo, Labrador. 
Known at present only by the type. 

37. Synaptomys innuitus medioximus Bangs. Intermediate 

bog lemming. 
Synaptomys innuitus medioximus Bangs. Proc. New Eng. 

Zool. Club, Vol. II, p. 40. 1900. 
Type Locality. L'Anse au Loup. 
This form, larger than, and otherwise different from, true S. 
innuitus of Fort Chimo, is at present known only by two specimens, 
— one, the type from L'Anse au Loup, and the other from Hamil- 
ton Inlet. 

38. Dicrostonyx hudsonius Pallas. Hudson Bay lemming. 
Mus hudsonius Pallas. Glir. p. 203. 1778. 

Type Locality. Labrador. 
Found throughout the barrens and on the treeless hills, south at 
least, to Hamilton Inlet. 

39. Zapus hudsonius ladas Bangs. Labrador jumping mouse. 
Zapus hudsonius ladas Bangs. Proc. New Eng. Zool. Club, 

Vol. I, p. 10. 1899. 
Type Locality. Rigolet, Hamilton Inlet. 
Abundant in the southern wooded region, about Black Bay, etc., 
and extending northward, along the coast, to beyond Hamilton 
Inlet. 

40. Nap^ozapus insignis abietorum Preble. Northern wood- 

land jumping mouse. 



490 APPENDIX IV 

Zapus (Napceozapus) insignis abietorum Preble. North Am. 
Fauna, No. 15, p. 36. 1899. 
I have seen but one Labrador specimen of this species, a mounted 
example from the Geological Survey of Canada collection, taken 
by Low at Hamilton River. 

41. Erethizon dorsatum picinum Bangs. Labrador porcupine. 
Erethizon dorsatus picinus Bangs. Proc. New Eng. Zool. Club, 

Vol. II, p. 37. 1900. 
Type Locality. L'Anse au Loup, Labrador. 
Common and generally distributed from the St. Lawrence, north 
to the semi-barrens. 

42. Leptjs labradorius Miller. Labrador polar bear. 

Lepus labradorius Miller. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XIII, 

p. 39. 1899. 
Type Locality. Fort Chimo, Ungava. 
Of general distribution in the barrens and semi-barrens of Labra- 
dor, occasionally reaching so far south as Hamilton Inlet. Turner 
took specimens at Fort Chimo and Solomon Island. 

43. Lepus americanus americanus Erxl. American varying hare. 
Lepus americanus Erxl. Syst. Reg. Anim., p. 330. 1777. 
Type Locality. South side of Hudson Strait. 

Common throughout the wooded region, and extending into 
the edge of the barrens. Goldthwaite took fourteen specimens at 
Hamilton Inlet. 

44. Phoca vitulina Linn. Harbour seal. 

Phoca vitulina Linn. Syst. Nat., Vol. I, p. 38. 1758. 

Common along the whole coast, and in the lower parts of the 
rivers. It is also, according to Low, found in many of the fresh- 
water lakes of the interior, and the Indians assert that these fresh- 
water seals never leave the lakes. This should be carefully looked 
into, and it is to be hoped that collectors in Labrador may be able 
to take some of these fresh-water seals. 

One skull in Bangs 's collection from Okkak, obtained by Sorn- 
borger from the Eskimo. 

45. Phoca hispida Schreber. Ringed seal. 

Phoca hispida Schreber. Saugt, Vol. Ill, p. 312, PI. LXXXVI. 
1775. (Vide Thomas. Zoologist, p. 102. 1898.) 
Common along the entire Labrador coast. 

46. Phoca grcenlandica Fabricius. Harp seal. 

Phoca groznlandica Fabricius. Muller's Zool. Dan. Prod., Vol. 
VIII. 1776. 
Common along the whole Labrador coast. 

47. Erignathtjs Barbatus Fabricius. Bearded seal. 

Phoca barbata Fabricius. Muller's Zool. Dan. Prod., Vol. VIII. 
1776. 



APPENDIX IV 491 

Low reports this seal to be rare in the St. Lawrence and in south- 
ern Labrador, but more common northward, — in Hudson Strait, 
Hudson Bay, and James Bay. 

48. Halichcerus grypus Fabricius. Gray seal. 

Phoca grypus Fabricius. Skriv. af. Naturh.-Selsk., Vol. I, ii, 
p. 167, PL XIII, Fig. 4. 1791. 
Rare along the Labrador coast. 

49. Cystophora cristata Erxleben. Hooded seal. 

Phoca cristata Erxleben. Syst. Reg. Anim., p. 590. 1777. 
Not common along the Labrador coast. 

50. Odobenus rosmarus Linn. Atlantic walrus. 

Phoca rosmarus Linn. Syst. Nat., Ed. X, Vol. I, p. 38. 1758. 

Now restricted to northern Labrador, reaching south only to 

about Nachvak. Formerly abundant along the whole Labrador 

coast. A fine pair, d and ?, skulls in Bangs's collection, obtained 

by Sornborger from the Eskimo at Okkak. 

51. Lynx canadensis canadensis Kerr. Canada lynx. 
Lynx canadensis Kerr. Anim. King., p. 157. 1792. 

Common within the wooded area from the Atlantic coast to Hud- 
son Bay, Low. 

52. Vulpes rtjbricosa bangsi Merriam. Labrador red fox. 
Vulpes rubricosa bangsi Merriam. Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., 

Vol. II, p. 667. 1900. 
Type Locality. L'Anse au Loup, Labrador. 
Common throughout the whole of Labrador from the St. Lawrence 
to Hudson Strait. 

53. Vulpes lagopus ttngava Merriam. Labrador white fox. 
Vulpes lagopus ungava Merriam. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 

XV, p. 170. 1902. 
Type Locality. Fort Chimo, Ungava. 
The Arctic fox is abundant in the barren-grounds and extends 
south to about Lake Michikamaw and to Nichicum. Along both 
coasts it pushes rather farther south ; on the Atlantic to Hamilton 
Inlet, and rarely even to the Strait of Belle Isle ; on the coast of 
James Bay to its southern part. 

Two skulls in Bangs 's collection from Hebron, obtained by 
Sornborger. 

54. Canis occidentalis Richardson. Timber-wolf. 

Canis lupus, occidentalis Richardson. F. B. A.Mamm., p. 60. 

1829. 

According to Low, the timber-wolf is now very rare in the southern 

wooded region, owing to the extermination of the woodland caribou. 

It is still common in the barrens and semi-barrens of the north. 

One skull in Bangs's collection from Hopedale, collected by 

Sornborger. 



492 APPENDIX IV 

55. Canis albus Joseph Sabine. Arctic wolf. 

Cants lupus — albus Joseph Sabine. Franklin's Narrative. 
Appendix, p. 655. 1823. 
Occasionally taken in northern barren-grounds, Low. 

56. Lutra canadensis canadensis Schreber. Canada otter. 
Mustela lutra Canadensis Schreber. Saugthiere, PI. CXXVI, B. 

Low states the otter to be common throughout the wooded 
region and to range northward into the semi-barrens. One skull 
in Bangs's collection from Okkak, Sornborger. Turner sent one 
specimen to Washington from "Forks," Ungava. (Although it 
appears in the catalogue, it cannot now be found.) Doane took 
specimens at Black Bay. 

57. Mephitis mephitica Shaw. Canada skunk. 

Viverra mephitica Shaw. Museum Leverianum, p. 172. 1792. 

Said by Stearns to be found occasionally on the southern coast 

of Labrador. I found it common at Lake Edward, Quebec, and 

it is probable that its range does reach Labrador, though I never 

have seen a specimen from that region. 

58. Gulo luscus Linn. American wolverine. 

Ursus luscus Linn. Syst. Nat., Ed. X, Vol. I, p. 47. 1758. 

Abundant throughout Labrador, especially northward to Hudson 
Strait. 

Two skulls from Okkak in Bangs 's collection, obtained by Sorn- 
borger. Turner sent one specimen to Washington from Fort Chimo. 
Doane sent me some beautiful specimens from L'Anse au Loup. 

In Labrador the wolverine is usually called "badger." 

59. Putorius vison vison Schreber. Little black mink. 
Mustela vison Schreber. Saugt., Vol. Ill, p. 463. 1778. 

Low says the mink is found only in the southern part of Labrador, 
seldom occurring north of East Main and Hamilton rivers. Doane 
sent me four specimens from Black Bay. 

60. Putorius cicognanii cicognanii Bonap. Small brown weasel. 
Mustela cicognanii Bonap. Fauna, Italica, Mamm., p. 4. 1838. 

Reported by Low to be common everywhere south of tree limit. 

Goldthwaite took two specimens, 6 and ?, at Rigolet. Turner 
took one at "Forks," Ungava. Doane sent me a fine series from 
Black Bay and L'Anse au Loup. 

One would expect to find Putorius cicognanii richardsoni Bonap. 
replacing the present form in the western and northern barrens, 
and very possibly it does, but I have seen no specimens from that 
region. 

61. Mustela Americana brumalis Bangs. Labrador marten; 

sable. 
Mustela brumalis Bangs. Amer. Nat., Vol. XXXI, p. 162. 
February, 1897. 






APPENDIX IV 493 

Type Locality. Okkak, Labrador. 

Formerly I thought that the marten of southern Labrador would 
prove to be true M, americana, but specimens sent me by Doane 
from L'Anse au Loup are M. a. brumalis, and I now doubt the ex- 
istence in Labrador of two forms. 

The Labrador subspecies is a fine large, dark -coloured mar- 
ten, and is generally distributed throughout the wooded regions. 

62. Mustela pennantii pennantii Erxl. Pennants's marten; 

fisher. 
Mustela pennantii Erxl. Syst. An., p. 479. 1777. 
Pennants 's marten, according to Low, rarely enters the south- 
western limits of Labrador, not occurring east of Mingan nor north 
of Mistassini. 

63. Ursus americanus Pallas. Black bear. 

Ursus americanus Pallas. Spicil. Zool., fasc. XIV, p. 5. 1780. 
Ursus americanus sornborgeri Bangs. Amer. Nat., Vol. XXXII, 

p. 500. 1898. 
Type Locality. Okkak, Labrador. 
Of general distribution throughout Labrador, north to tree limit. 
At one time I thought the Labrador black bear was separable 
as a subspecies and named it W. a. sornborgeri, but since then I 
have examined a large number of additional skulls and find none 
of the characters on which I based the subspecies to hold good, 
most of these skulls being indistinguishable in size or in any other 
- way from skulls from Nova Scotia, Maine, New Hampshire, etc., 
with which I compared them. 

In my former list I included Ursus richardsoni Swainson — the 
barren-ground bear — on the strength of reports that Low had of 
it from the Nascaupee Indians. I am now inclined to discredit these, 
so far as Labrador is concerned. Indians everywhere have many 
traditions that persist in a remarkable manner, and often they are 
borrowed from tribes that live at a distance. I can find no evidence 
that the barren-ground bear occurs in the barrens of Labrador, and 
until it is actually known to be there it must be struck from a list 
of the mammals of Labrador. 

64. Thalarctos maritimus Linn. Polar bear; ice bear. 

Ursus maritimus Linn. Syst. Nat., Ed. XII, Vol. I, p. 70. 
1766. 
Low says the polar bear ranges south along the Atlantic coast of 
Labrador occasionally as far as the Strait of Belle Isle, and in 
Hudson Bay to Charleton Island. The species seldom goes far 
inland, except to produce its young. Sornborger told me that the 
polar bear is very common and resident in northern Labrador. 

Four skulls in Bangs 's collection, all obtained by Sornborger of 
the Eskimo at Hebron and Okkak. 



494 APPENDIX IV 

65. Sorex personatus miscix Bangs. Labrador shrew. 

Sorex personatus miscix Bangs. Proc. New Eng. Zool. Club., 

Vol. I, p. 15. 1899. 
Type Locality. Black Bay, Labrador. 
Common throughout the Labrador peninsula from Fort Chimo 
south. 

66. Condylura cristata Linn. Star-nosed mole. 

Sorex cristatus Linn. Syst. Nat., Ed. X, Vol. I, p. 53. 1758. 
Goldthwaite saw and fully identified a star-nosed mole that the 
dogs had caught at Rigolet. 

Doane sent me a female from Black Bay, taken October 20, 1898. 

67. Myotis lucifugus lucifugus Le Conte. Little brown bat. 
Vespertilio lucifugus Le Conte. McMurtries' Cuvier, Appen- 
dix, p. 431. 1831. 

Low supposed the bats seen by him on Hamilton River and at 
Lake Mistassini to belong to this species. I took this bat at Lake 
Edward, Quebec, and Miller (North Am. Fauna, No. 13, p. 63) 
records it from Godbout and Ottawa, Quebec, and from James 
Bay, Ontario. It is also found in Newfoundland. 

68. Myotis subulatus subulatus Say. Say's bat. 
Vespertilio subulatus Say. Long's Exped. to Rocky Mts., Vol. II, 

p. 65, footnote. 1823. 
Reported by Stearns from Natashquan. Miller (North Am. 
Fauna, No. 13, p. 76) records specimens from Mount Forest and 
North Bay, Ontario, and Godbout and Ottawa, Quebec. 



LIST OF THE BIRDS OF LABRADOR 

With brief annotations 

By Charles W. Townsend, M.D., and 

Glover M. Allen, Ph.D. 1 

1. Colymbtjs holbcelli. Holboeirs grebe. 
Rare transient visitor. 

2. Colymbus auritus. Horned grebe. 
Rare transient visitor ; possibly breeds, 

3. Gavia imber. Loon. 
Common summer resident. 

4. Gavia arcticus. Black-throated loon. 

Summer resident, not uncommon in the north ; rare in the south, 

5. Gavia lumme. Red-throated loon ; "whabby." 
Common summer resident. 

6. Fratercula arctica. Puffin; " paroquet." 
Abundant summer resident. 

7. Cepphus grylle. Black guillemot ; "sea-pigeon." 
Abundant summer resident. 

8. Cepphus mandtii. Mandt's guillemot. 
Summer resident. 

9. Uria troile. Murre. 

Common summer resident in south ; a few winter. 

10. Uria lomvia. Brunnich's murre. 
Common summer resident ; a few winter. 

11. Alca torda. Razor-billed auk ; "tinker." 
Common summer resident; a few winter. 

[Plautus impennis. Great auk ; "penguin."] 
Extinct. 

12. Alle alle. Dovekie; "bull-bird." 
Abundant transient and winter visitor. 

13. Megalestris skua. Skua; "sea-hen." 
Accidental visitor. 

14. Stercorarius pomarinus. Pomarine jaeger; "boVn." 
Common summer visitor ; probably breeds in north. 

1 Vide The Birds of Labrador, Proc. Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist., Vol. 33, 
No. 7, July, 1907. 

495 



496 APPENDIX V 

15. Stercorarius parasiticus. Parasitic jaeger. 
Common summer visitor ; perhaps breeds in north. 

16. Stercorarius longicaudus. Long-tailed jaeger,. 
Rare summer resident. 

17. Pagophila alba. Ivory gull ; " ice partridge.^ 
Common winter visitor. 

18. Rissa tridactyla. Kittiwake ; "tickler." 
Abundant summer resident. 

19. Larus glaucus. Glaucous gull. 
Common summer resident ; a few winter. 

20. Larus leucopterus. Iceland gull. 
Rare transient or winter visitor. 

21. Larus marinus. Great black-backed gull ; "saddle-back." 
Common summer resident. 

22. Larus argentatus. Herring gull. 
Common summer resident. 

23. Larus delawarensis. Ring-billed gull. 
Uncommon summer resident, locally in south. 

24. Larus Philadelphia. Bonaparte's gull. 
Common transient ; autumnal visitor in south. 

25. Xema sabinii. Sabine's gull. 
Rare transient visitor. 

26. Sterna caspia. Caspian tern. 
Very rare summer resident in south. 

27. Sterna hirundo. Common tern. 
Common summer resident in south. 

28. Sterna paradis^ea. Arctic tern. 
Common summer resident, locally. 

29. Sterna antillarum. Least tern. 
Extirpated. 

30. Fulmarus glacialis. Fulmar. 
Common summer visitor. 

31. Puffinus gravis. Greater shearwater. 
Abundant summer visitor. 

32. Puffinus fuliginosus. Sooty shearwater. 
Common summer visitor. 

33. Procellaria pelagica. Stormy petrel. 
Rare summer visitor. 

34. Oceanodroma leucorhoa. Leach's petrel. 
Common summer resident in south. 

35. Oceanites oceanicus. Wilson's petrel. 
Uncommon summer visitor. 

36. Sula bassana. Gannet. 
Uncommon summer resident, locally. 

37. Phalacrocorax carbo. Cormorant. 
Common summer resident, locally. 



APPENDIX V 497 



38. Phalacrocorax dilophus. Double-crested cormorant; 



Common summer resident, locally. 

39. Merganser americanus. American merganser. 
Rare summer resident. 

40. Merganser serrator. Red-breasted merganser. 
Common summer resident. 

41. Lophodytes cucullatus. Hooded merganser. 
Rare summer resident. 

42. Anas boschas. Mallard. 
Rare transient visitor. 

43. Anas obscura. Black duck. 
Common summer resident. 

44. Anas obscura rubripes. Red-legged black duck. 
Common summer resident. 

45. Mareca Americana. Baldpate ; American widgeon. 
Rare transient visitor. 

46. Nettion crecca. European teal. 
Accidental visitor. 

47. Nettion carolinensis. Green-winged teal. 
Rare summer resident. 

48. Querquedula discors. Blue-winged teal. 
Very rare summer resident. 

49. Spatula clypeata. Shoveller. 
Accidental visitor. 

50. Dafila acuta. Pintail. 
Very rare transient visitor. 

51. Aythya Americana. Redhead. 
Very rare transient visitor. 

52. Aythya marila. Greater scaup duck. 
Rare summer resident in northwest. 

53. Clangula Americana. American golden-eye; whistler. 
Common summer resident. 

54. Clangula islandica. Barrow's golden-eye. 
Rare transient visitor and summer resident. 

55. Charitonetta albeola. Buffle-head ; "sleepy diver." 
Rare transient visitor. 

56. Harelda hyemalis. Old-squaw ; "hound." 
Common summer resident in northern parts. 

57. Histrionicus histrionicus. Harlequin duck ; " lord and lady." 
Common summer resident in northern parts. 

[Camptolaimus labradorius. Labrador duck. Extinct.] 

58. Somateria mollissima borealis. Northern eider; Greenland 

eider. 
Abundant summer resident north of Hamilton Inlet. 
2k 



498 APPENDIX V 

59. Somateria dresseri. American eider ; "sea-duck " ; "metik/ 
Common summer resident in southern part. 

60. Somateria spectabilis. King eider; "king duck." 
Abundant transient visitor; not uncommon summer resident 

in the north. 

61. Oidemia Americana. American scoter ; "butter-bill coot." 
Common transient visitor ; rare summer resident. 

62. Oidemia deglandi. White-winged scoter; "brass-wing diver." 
Abundant summer resident. 

63. Oidemia perspicillata. Surf scoter; "bottle-nosed diver." 
Abundant summer resident. 

64. Erismatura jamaicensis. Ruddy duck. 
Uncommon summer resident on shores of Hudson Bay. 

65. Chen HYPERBOREA nivalis. Greater snow goose; "wavey." 
Very rare summer resident in northwest ; common transient visitor 

on shores of Hudson Bay. 

66. Chen cerulescius. Blue goose; "blue wavey." 
Common transient visitor on shores of Hudson Bay. 

67. Anser albifrons gambeli. American white-fronted goose. 
Accidental visitor. 

68. Branta canadensis. Canada goose. 
Common summer resident. 

69. Branta bernicla glaucogastra. White-bellied brant. 
Abundant transient visitor locally. 

70. Olor columbianus. Whistling swan. 
Very rare summer resident in northwest. 

71. Botaurus lentiginosis. American bittern. 
Very rare summer resident in southwest. 

72. Ardea herodias. Great blue heron. 
Accidental visitor. 

73. Florida cozrrlea. Little blue heron. 
Accidental visitor. 

74. Nycticorax nycticorax n^evius. Black-crowned night- 

heron. 
Accidental visitor. 

75. Rallus virginianus. Virginia rail. 
Accidental visitor. 

76. Porzana Carolina. Sora. 
Accidental visitor. 

77. Fulica Americana. American coot. 
Accidental visitor. 

78. Crymophilus fulicarius. Red phalarope. 
Common transient visitor ; rare summer resident. 

79. Phalaropus lobatus. Northern phalarope. 
Common summer resident. 



APPENDIX V 499 

80. Gallinago delicata. Wilson's snipe. 
Rare summer resident. 

81. Macrorhamphus griseus. Dowitcher. 
Rare transient visitor. 

82. Tringa canutus. Knot. 
Uncommon transient visitor. 

83. Arquatella maritima. Purple sandpiper. 
Rare transient and winter visitor. 

84. Actodromas maculata. Pectoral sandpiper. 
Common autumnal transient visitor. 

85. Actodromas puscicollis. White-rumped sandpiper. 
Common transient visitor. 

86. Actodromas minutilla. Least sandpiper ; "peep." 
Common summer resident. 

87. Pelidna alpina sakhalina. Red-backed sandpiper ; Ameri- 

can dunlin. 
Uncommon transient visitor. 

88. Ereunetes pusillus. Semipalmated sandpiper; "peep." 
Common summer resident, locally. 

89. Calidris arenaria. Sanderling. 
Common transient visitor. 

90. Limosa NiEMASTicA. Hudsonian godwit. 
Very rare transient visitor. 

91. Totanus melanoleucus. Greater yellow-legs. 
Common summer resident. 

92. Totanus flavipes. Yellow-legs. 
Uncommon transient visitor. 

93. Helodromas solitarius. Solitary sandpiper. 
Uncommon summer resident. 

94. Tryngites subruficollis. Buff-breasted sandpiper. 
Very rare transient visitor. 

95. Actitis macularia. Spotted sandpiper. 
Common summer resident. 

96. Numenius hudsonicus. Hudsonian curlew. 
Uncommon autumn transient visitor. 

97. Numenius borealis. Eskimo curlew ; " the curlew." 
Formerly abundant autumn transient visitor ; now very rare. 

98. Squatarola squatarola. Black-bellied plover. 
Common transient visitor. 

99. Charadrius dominicus. American golden plover. 
Uncommon autumn transient visitor. 

100. ^Egialitis semipalmata. Semipalmated plover; "ring-neck/ 
Common summer resident. 

101. Arenaria morinella. Ruddy turnstone. 
Common transient visitor. 



500 APPENDIX V 

102. H^ematopus palliatus. American oyster-catcher. 
Extirpated ; formerly summer resident. 

103. Canachites canadensis. Hudsonian spruce grouse. 
Common permanent resident. 

104. Bonasa umbellus togata. Canadian ruffed grouse. 
Not uncommon permanent resident in southern part. 

105. Lagopus lagopus. Willow ptarmigan. 
Common permanent resident in wooded portions. 

106. Lagopus rupestris. Rock ptarmigan. 

Common permanent resident in treeless portions, except in extreme 
north. 

107. Lagopus rupestris reinhardti. Reinhardt's ptarmigan. 
Common permanent resident in the extreme north. 

108. Pediocetes phasianellus. Sharp-tailed grouse. 
Uncommon, permanent resident in western Labrador. 

109. Ectopistes migratorius. Passenger-pigeon. 
Formerly very rare, now extirpated. 

110. Zenaidura macroura. Mourning dove. 
Accidental visitor. 

111. Cathartes aura. Turkey vulture. 
Accidental visitor. 

112. Circus hudsonius. Marsh-hawk. 
Very rare summer resident in the south. 

113. Accipiter velox. Sharp-shinned hawk. 
Very rare summer resident in the south. 

114. Accipiter cooperi. Cooper's hawk. 
Rare summer resident in the south. 

115. Accipiter atricapillus. American goshawk. 
Uncommon permanent resident. 

116. Buteo borealis. Red-tailed hawk. 
Very rare summer visitor. 

117. Archibuteo lagopus sancti-johannis. American rough- 

legged hawk. 
Very common summer resident. 

118. Aquila chrys^etos. Golden eagle. 
Very rare permanent resident. 

119. Haliaetus leucocephalus alascanus. Northern bald 

eagle. 
Rare summer resident. 

120. Falco islandus. White gyrfalcon. 
Common permanent resident. 

121. Falco rusticolus. Gray gyrfalcon. 
Rare winter visitor. 

122. Falco rusticolus gyrpalco. Gyrfalcon. 
Rare visitor. 



APPENDIX V 501 

123. Falco rusticolus obsoletus. Black gyrfalcon. 
Common permanent resident. 

124. Falco peregrinus anatum. Duck-hawk. 
Common summer resident. 

125. Falco columbarius. Pigeon-hawk. 
Common summer resident. 

126. Falco sparverius. American sparrow-hawk. 
Rare summer visitor. 

127. Pandion haliaetus carolinensis. American osprey. 
Common summer resident in south. 

128. Asio accipitrinus. Short-eared owl. 
Common summer resident. 

129. Syrnitjm varium. Barred owl. 
Very rare summer visitor in the south. 

130. Cryptoglaux tengmalmi richardsoni. Richardson's owl. 
Rare permanent resident. 

131. Cryptoglaux acadica. Saw-whet owl. 
Rare summer resident. 

132. Megascops asio. Screech owl. 

Very rare summer visitor in southern part. 

133. Asio magellanictjs heterocnemis. Labrador horned owl. 
Common permanent resident. 

134. Nyctea nyctea. Snowy owl. 
Not common permanent resident. 

135. Surnia ulula caparoch. American hawk-owl. 
Common permanent resident. 

136. Coccyzus erythrophthalmus. Black-billed cuckoo. 
Very rare summer visitor in south. 

137. Ceryle alcyon. Belted kingfisher, 
Common summer resident in southwest. 

138. Dryobates villosus letjcomelas. Northern hairy wood- 

pecker. 
Uncommon summer resident in south. 

139. Dryobates pubescens medianus. Northern downy wood 

pecker. 
Common permanent resident in southern half. 

140. Picoides arctictjs. Arctic three-toed woodpecker. 
Common permanent resident north to tree limit. 

141. Picoides americanus. American three-toed woodpecker. 
Common permanent resident north to tree limit. 

142. Colaptes auratus luteus. Northern flicker. 
Uncommon summer resident in southern half. 

143. Chordeiles virginianus. Night-hawk. 
Common summer resident in south. 

144. Trochilus colubris. Ruby-throated hummingbird. 
Very rare summer resident. 



502 APPENDIX V 

145. Tyrannus tyrannus. Kingbird. 
Rare summer resident in south. 

146. Sayornis phcebe. Phoebe. 
Very rare summer resident in south. 

147. Ntjttallornis borealis. Olive-sided flycatcher. 
Very rare summer resident in southwest. 

148. Empidonax flaviventris. Yellow-bellied flycatcher. 
Common summer resident in southwest. 

149. Empidonax traillii alnortjm. Alder flycatcher. 
Not uncommon summer resident in southwest. 

150. Otocoris alpestris. Horned lark ; shore lark. 
Abundant summer resident throughout the Arctic Zone, especially 

on coast. 

151. Perisoreus canadensis NiGRiCAPiLLUs. Labrador jay. 
Abundant permanent resident in forested regions. 

152. Corvus corax principalis. Northern raven. 
Common permanent resident. 

153. Corvus brachyrynchos. American crow. 
Uncommon summer resident in the south. 

154. Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus. , Yellow-headed black- 

bird. 
Accidental visitor. 

155. Euphagus carolinus. Rusty blackbird. 
Common summer resident. 

156. Pinicola enucleator leucura. Pine grosbeak. 
Common summer resident ; winters in southern portion. 

157. Carpodacus purpureus. Purple finch. 
Common summer resident in south. 

158. Loxia curvirostra minor. American crossbill. 
Uncommon summer resident ; may winter. 

159. Loxia letjcoptera. White-winged crossbill. 
Common permanent resident. 

160. Acanthis hornemannii. Greenland redpoll. 
Abundant winter visitor in the north. 

161. Acanthis hornemannii exilipes. Hoary redpoll. 
Abundant permanent resident in the north. 

162. Acanthis linaria. Redpoll. 
Abundant permanent resident. 

163. Acanthis linaria rostrata. Greater redpoll.. 
Common winter visitor ; rare summer resident in the north. 

164. Astragalinus tristis. American goldfinch. 
Accidental visitor. 

165. Spinus pinus. Pine siskin. 
Uncommon summer resident in the south. 

166. Passerina nivalis. Snowflake ; snow bunting. 



APPENDIX V 503 

Abundant summer resident in the north; winter visitor in the 
south. 

167. Calcarius lapponicus. Lapland longspur. 

Abundant summer resident in the north ; winter visitor in the south. 

168. Passerculus sandwichensis savanna. Savanna sparrow. 
Very common summer resident. 

169. Zonotrichia ledcophrys. White-crowned sparrow* 
Abundant summer resident. 

170. Zonotrichia albicollis. White-throated sparrow» 
Common summer resident in south. 

171. Spizella monticola. Tree sparrow. 
Common summer resident. 

172. Junco hyemalis. Slate-coloured junco. 
Uncommon summer resident. 

173. Melospiza cinerea melodia. Song sparrow. 
Uncommon summer resident in southwest. 

174. Melospiza lincolni. Lincoln's sparrow. 
Common summer resident in south. 

175. Melospiza georgiana. Swamp sparrow. 
Common summer resident in southwest. 

176. Passerella iliaca. Fox sparrow. 
Common summer resident in south. 

177. Hirundo erythrogaster. Barn swallow. 
Very rare summer resident. 

178. Iridoprocne bicolor. Tree swallow. 
Common summer resident locally. 

179. Riparia riparia. Bank swallow. 
Common summer resident in a few localities. 

180. Ampelis cedrorum. Cedar waxwing. 
Rare summer resident. 

181. Lanius borealis. Northern shrike. 
Not uncommon summer resident. 

182. Helminthophila rubricapilla. Nashville warbler. 
Very rare summer visitor in the south. 

183. Helminthophila peregrina. Tennessee warbler. 
Not uncommon summer resident in Hudsonian Zone. 

184. Dendroica .estiva. Yellow warbler. 
Common summer resident locally in the south. 

185. Dendroica cerulescens. Black-throated blue warbler. 
Accidental visitor. 

186. Dendroica coronata. Myrtle warbler; yellow-rumped 

warbler. 
Common summer resident, chiefly in Canadian Zone. 

187. Dendroica maculosa. Magnolia warbler. 
Common summer resident in Canadian Zone. 



504 APPENDIX V 

188. Dendroica castanea. Bay-breasted warbler. 
Very rare summer resident. 

189. Dendroica striata. Blackpoll warbler. 
Very common summer resident. 

190. Dendroica blackburnle. Blackburnian warbler. 
Rare summer resident in the south. 

191. Dendroica virens. Black-throated green warbler. 
Common summer resident in the south. 

192. Dendroica vigorsii. Pine warbler. 
Very rare summer resident. 

193. Dendroica palmarium hypochrepea. Yellow-palm warbler 
Rare summer resident in the south. 

194. Seiurus aurocapillus. Oven-bird. 
Rare summer resident in the south. 

195. Seiurus noveboracencis. Water-thrush. 

Not uncommon summer resident in wooded portions. 

196. Geothlypis trichas brachidactyla. Northern yellow 

throat. 
Common summer resident in south. 

197. Wilsonia pusilla. Wilson's warbler. 
Common summer resident in south. 

198. Wilsonia canadensis. Canadian warbler. 
Rare summer resident in south. 

199. Setophaga ruticilla. American redstart. 
Common summer resident in south. 

200. Motacilla alba. White wagtail. 
Accidental visitor. 

201. Anthus pensilvanicus. American pipit. 
Abundant summer resident throughout Arctic Zone. 

202. Olbiorchilus hiemalis. Winter wren. 
Uncommon summer resident in south. 

203. Sitta canadensis. Red-breasted nuthatch. 
Uncommon summer resident in south. 

204. Parus atricapillus. Chickadee. 
Not uncommon summer resident in south. 

205. Parus hudsonicus. Hudsonian chickadee. 
Abundant permanent resident. 

206. Regulus satrapa. Golden-crowned kinglet. 
Common summer resident in south. 

207. Regulus calendula. Ruby-crowned kinglet. 
Common summer resident in south. 

208. Hylocichla fuscescens. Wilson's thrush. 
Rare summer resident in south. 

209. Hylocichla alici^. Gray-cheeked thrush ; Alice's thrush. 
Common summer resident. 



APPENDIX V 505 

210. Hylocichla ustulata swainsonii. Olive-backed thrush. 
Common summer resident in southwest. 

211. Hylocichla guttata pallasii. Hermit thrush. 
Common summer resident in south. 

212. Mertjla migratoria. American robin. 
Abundant summer resident. 

213. Saxicola cenanthe lencorhoa. Greenland wheatear. 
Rare summer resident. 



ADDITIONAL SPECIES 

Observed by Charles W. Townsend, M.D., and 
A. C. Bent, in 1909. 

214. ^Egialitis meloda. Piping plover. 
Rare summer resident in south. 

215. Cyanocitta cristata. Blue jay. 
Accidental visitor in south. 

216. Mniotilta varia. Black and white warbler. 
Not uncommon summer resident in south. 



**fe 



VI 

LIST OF CRUSTACEA ON THE LABRADOR COAST 
By Mary J. Rathbun 

Compiled from various lists published by Dr. Packard/ Profes- 
sor Smith, 2 and Dr. Ortmann, 3 from collections in the U. S. National 
Museum, 4 obtained by Mr. Lucien M. Turner, 5 in 1882 and 1883, 
and by Mr. Owen Bryant, 6 in 1908. 

Brachyura 

Cancer irroratus Say. Hamilton Inlet 7 (Packard) ; Caribou Island 
(Packard) . 

1 Packard, A. S., Jr., ."A List of Animals dredged near Caribou 
Island, Southern Labrador, during July and August, I860," The 
Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, Vol. VIII, pp. 401-429, Pis. 
I-II, December, 1863. 

Packard, A. S., Jr., "Observations on the Glacial Phenomena of 
Labrador and Maine, with a View of the Recent Invertebrate Fauna 
of Labrador," Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. I, pp. 210-303, Pis. 
VII- VIII, 1867. 

Packard, A. S., "Life and Nature in Southern Labrador," Amer. 
Nat., Vol. XIX, pp. 269-275, 365-372, 1885. 

2 Smith, Sidney I., " List of the Crustacea dredged on the Coast 
of Labrador by the Expedition under the Direction of W. A. Stearns, 
in 1882," Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. VI, pp. 218-222, 1883. 

Smith, Sidney I., "Review of the Marine Crustacea of Labrador," 
Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. VI, pp. 223-232, 1883. 

Smith, S. I., "List of Crustacea from Port Burwell collected by 
Dr. R. Bell in 1884, in Observations on the Geology, Mineralogy, 
Zoology, and Botany of the Labrador Coast, Hudson's Strait and Bay." 
By Robert Bell. Appendix IV, pp. 57DD-58DD. Geol. and Nat. 
Hist. Survey of Canada, 1884, Montreal. Pp. 1DD-62DD. 

3 Ortmann, A. E., "Crustacea and Pycnogonida collected during 
the Princeton Expedition to North Greenland," Proc. Acad. Nat. 
Sci. Phila., Vol. LIII, 1901, pp. 144-168, 1 text figure. 

4 By permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 

5 Determined by Prof. S. I. Smith. 

6 By permission of Mr. Bryant in advance of his report on the 
expedition. 

7 On p. 203 of The Labrador Coast, Packard says that the shore- 
crab occurs south of Hamilton Inlet. 

506 



APPENDIX VI 507 

Chionoecetes opilio O. Fabricius. Off northern Labrador, 10-15 
fms. in stomachs of fish (Packard) ; Henley Harbour (Smith) ; 
Chateau Bay, 30-50 fms. (Packard) ; Strait of Belle Isle, 10-50 
fms. (Packard). 

Hyas araneus Linn. Outside of Hebron, 60 fms., gravel (Bry- 
ant); off Fish Island, 75 fms., mud, and Nain, 7 fms., mud 
(Bryant) ; Domino Run, 0-1 fm. (Ortmann) ; Battle Harbour, 
12-14 fms. (Ortmann) ; Henley Harbour (Smith) ; near Cari- 
bou Island, common (Packard) ; L'Anse au Loup and Forteau 
Bay, 15-25 fms., sand, kelp, and dirt (Stearns) ; abundant 
along the whole coast, 5-50 fms. (Packard). 

Hyas coarctatus Leach. Henley Harbour, shallow water and 8 fms. 
(Smith), 30 fms. (Packard); Temple Bay (Smith); near 
Caribou Island, common (Packard). 



Anomura 

Pagurus pubescens Kroyer. Hopedale, 10 fms. (Packard) ; Egg 
Harbour, 7 fms., mud (Bryant) ; Dead Island, 1-3 fms., 
rocky (Smith) ; Fox Harbour, 3 fms., sand (Smith) ; Battle 
Harbour, 0-1 fm. (Ortmann) ; Henley Harbour, shoal water 
(Smith) ; Temple Bay, 10 fms. (Smith) ; Strait of Belle Isle, 
50 fms. (Packard) ; L'Anse au Loup, 10-15 fms., sandy 
(Smith) ; abundant on the whole coast from low-water mark 
to 50 fms. (Packard). 

Pagurus kroyeri Stimpson. Port Burwell (Smith) ; Nachvak, in 
stomach of cod (Turner) ; outside of Hebron", 60 fms., gravel 
(Bryant) ; off Fish Island, 75 fms., mud (Bryant) ; halfway 
from Cape Mugford to Hebron, 60 fms., mud, sand (Bryant) ; 
Port Manvers, 30 fms., sticky mud (Bryant) ; Nain, 7 fms., 
mud (Bryant) ; Shoal Tickle near (southeast of) Nain (Bryant) ; 
Dead Island, nullipore (Smith) ; Henley Harbour, 3-15 fms. 
(Smith) ; Temple Bay, 10 fms., rocky (Smith) ; not so abun- 
dant as P. pubescens (Packard) . 



Macrura 

Homarus americanus Milne Edwards. South of Hamilton Inlet 
(Packard) ; Henley Harbour, rare (Packard) ; near Caribou 
Island, common (Packard). 

Crago septemspinosus Say. Caribou Island, very large and abun- 
dant on mud flats (Packard). 

Sclerocrangon boreas Phipps. Labrador Reef, Ungava (Turner) ; 
Port Burwell (Smith) ; Komaktorvik Bay, 5 fms., rocky 



508 APPENDIX VI 

(Bryant) ; Nachvak, cod stomach (Turner) ; Egg Harbour, 

7 fms., mud (Bryant) ; Dead Island, 1-3 fms., rocky (Smith), 
Square Island, 30 fms. (Packard) ; Henley Harbour, 4-10 fms., 
one with a Pontobdella an inch long attached to under surface 
(Packard) ; Strait of Belle Isle, 10 fms. (Packard) ; Caribou 
Island, 8 fms. (Packard) ; L'Anse au Loup, 8-10 fms. (Smith). 

Nectocrangon dentata Rathbun = iV. lar Smith, not Owen. Nach- 
vak 1 (Turner) ; outside of Hebron, 1 60 fms., gravel (Bryant) ; 
Nain, 1 7 fms., mud (Bryant) ; Shoal Tickle 1 near (southeast of) 
Nain (Bryant), Egg Harbour, 1 7 fms., mud (Bryant); Dead 
Island, 2 nullipore (Smith) ; Square Island, 2 30 fms. (Packard) ; 
Henley Harbour, 1 10 fms. (Smith) ; near Caribou Island, 2 
10 fms., 3 mud, rare (Packard). 

Sabinea septemcarinata Sabine. Halfway from Cape Mugford to 
Hebron, 60 fms., mud, sand (Bryant) ; Thomas Bay, 15 fms. 
(Packard) . 

Spirontocaris grcenlandica J. C. Fabricius. Port Burwell (Smith) ; 
Komaktorvik Bay, 5 fms., rocky (Bryant) ; Nachvak, in cod 
stomach (Turner) ; Egg Harbour, 7 fms., mud (Bryant) ; 
Dead Island, 1-4 fms. (Smith) ; Square Island, 15-30 fms. 
(Packard) ; Domino Harbour, 7 fms. (Packard) ; Fox Harbour, 
1 fm. (Smith) ; Strait of Belle Isle, 10 fms. (Packard) ; Cari- 
bou Island, 14 fms. (Packard) ; L'Anse au Loup, 10-15 fms. 
(Smith). 

Spirontocaris spina Sowerby. Nachvak (Turner) ; outside of 
Hebron, 60 fms., gravel (Bryant) ; Shoal Tickle near (southeast 
of) Nain (Bryant) ; Egg Harbour, 7 fms., mud (Bryant) ; 
Square Island, 15-30 fms., not common (Packard) ; Henley 
Harbour, shoal water and 10-15 fms. (Smith) ; Temple Bay, 
rocky (Smith), near Caribou Island, frequent in 10-50 fms. 
(Packard) . 

Spirontocaris phippsii Kreyer. Port Burwell (Smith) ; Komak- 
torvik Bay, 5 fms., rocky (Bryant) ; Nachvak (Turner) ; outside 
of Hebron, 60 fms., gravel (Bryant) ; halfway from Cape Mug- 
ford to Hebron, 60 fms., mud, sand (Bryant) ; Shoal Tickle 
near (southeast of) Nain (Bryant) ; Battle Harbour, 12-14 fms. 
(Ortmann) ; Domino Harbour, 7 fms. (Packard) ; off Belles 
Amours, 10 fms., rocky (Packard, as turgida) ; L'Anse au Loup, 

8 fms. (Smith). 

Spirontocaris polaris Sabine. Labrador Reef, Ungava, pale flesh 

1 Specimens examined by the present writer. 

2 Probably this species. 

3 In Packard's first list (1863) the depths are erroneously given in 
feet. 



APPENDIX VI 509 

colour, not active (Turner) ; Port Burwell, 68 mm. long 
(Smith) ; Nachvak (Turner) ; outside of Hebron, 60 fms., 
gravel (Bryant) ; Dead Island, 3 fms., seaweed (Smith) ; 
Square Island, 15-30 fms. (Packard), Strait of Belle Isle, 
10 fms. (Packard). 

Spirontocaris fabricii Krayer. Labrador Reef, Ungava (Turner) ; 
Port Burwell (Smith) ; Nain, 7 fms., mud (Bryant) ; Shoal 
Tickle, near (southeast of) Nain (Bryant) ; Egg Harbour, 
7 fms., mud (Bryant) ; Dead Island, 3 fms. (Smith) ; Fox Har- 
bour, 1 fm. (Smith) ; Henley Harbour, 10-15 fms. (Smith) ; 
Domino Harbour, 7 fms., not common (Packard) ; L'Anse au 
Loup, 15 fms., sand, and on rocky bottom (Smith) ; Forteau 
Bay, 20 fms. (Smith). 

Spirontocaris gaimardii Milne Edwards. Komaktorvik Bay, 5 
fms., rocky (Bryant), varying toward belcheri; halfway from 
Cape Mugford to Hebron, 60 fms., mud, sand (Bryant), varying 
toward belcheri; Nain, 7 fms., mud (Bryant), varying towards 
belcheri; Shoal Tickle near (southeast of) Nain (Bryant) ; 
Hopedale, 10 fms., (Packard) ; Egg Harbour, 7 fms., mud 
(Bryant) ; Square Island, 30 fms. (Packard) ; Henley Harbour 
and Sloop Harbour, 8 fms. (Packard) ; Caribou Island, 15 fms. 
(Packard); common (Packard). 

Spirontocaris gaimardii belcheri Bell. Nachvak (Turner) ; off 
Fish Island, outside of Hebron, 75 fms., mud (Bryant) ; Henley 
Harbour, 10 fms. (Stearns), varying toward typical gaimardii; 
L'Anse au Loup, 8-15 fms. (Stearns). 

Spirontocaris stoneyi Rathbun. Shoal Tickle, near (southeast of) 
Nain (Bryant). 

Spirontocaris macilenta Krayer. Off Fish Island, 75 fms., mud 
(Bryant) ; halfway from Cape Mugford to Hebron, 60 fms., 
mud, sand (Bryant) ; Shoal Tickle near (southeast of) Nain 
(Bryant) ; Square Island, 15-30 fms., rare (Packard). 

Pandalus montagui Leach. Port Burwell (Smith) ; Nain, 7 fms., 
mud (Bryant) ; Hopedale, 10 fms. (Packard) ; Egg Harbour, 
7 fms., mud (Bryant) ; Sloop Harbour, 6 fms. (Packard) ; 
Henley Harbour, 20 fms. (Packard); Temple Bay, 10 fms., 
rocky (Smith) ; L'Anse au Loup, 8-15 fms. (Smith) ; Forteau 
Bay, 20 fms. (Smith). 

SCHIZOPODA 

Mysis oculata O. Fabricius. Port Burwell (Smith) ; Komak- 
torvik Bay, 5 fms., rocky (Bryant) ; Dead Island (Smith) ; 
Caribou Island (Packard) ; swarms in tidal pools and abundant 
along the whole coast (Packard). 



510 APPENDIX VI 

My sis mixta Lilljeborg. Ungava in stomach of murre, Uria 

columba (Turner); Rigolet, not common (Turner). 
My sis relicta Loven. Indian Harbour, fresh water (Bryant). 

Phyllocarida 

Nebalia bipes Fabricius. Mouth of Henley Harbour, 4-20 fms. 
(Packard). 

Cumacea 

Diastylis rathkii Krayer. Mouth of Koksoak, Ungava (Turner) ; 
Fox Harbour, 3 fms., sand, abundant (Smith) ; Belles Amours, 
6 fms., Thomas Bay, 15 fms., mud, Square Island, 15-30 fms., 
Henley Harbour, 8 fms., Chateau Bay, Long Island, 15 fms. 
(Packard); common in 10-50 fms. (Packard). 

Diastylis quadrispinosus G. O. Sars. Off Belles Amours, 4-6 fms. 
(Packard, The Labrador Coast, p. 113. Not given, however, 
in his list of Crustacea and perhaps confused with the preced- 
ing). 

Isopoda * 

Leptochelia filum Stimpson. Caribou Island, 8 fms., sandy, rare 
(Packard) . 

Gnathia cerina Stimpson. Chateau Bay, Long Island, 15 fms., 
sandy (Packard). 

Mga psora Linn. Port Burwell (Smith) ; Nachvak (Turner) ; 
Strait of Belle Isle, on under side of cod (Packard) ; north shore 
of Gulf of St. Lawrence (Whiteaves). 

Arcturus baffini Sabine. Port Burwell (Smith). 

Mesidotea entomon Linn. Nachvak (Turner). 

Mesidotea sabini Krayer. Halfway from Cape Mugford to He- 
bron, 60 fms., mud, sand (Bryant). 

Synidotea marmorata Packard. "Cock Capelin," Gready Har- 
bour (Bryant) ; Sloop Harbour, Kyuetarbuck Bay, 7 fms., sandy, 
reddish brown (Packard) ; Battle Harbour (Ortmann) . 

Asellus aquations Linn. Hopedale and Square Island, com- 
mon in soil under stones, etc., in company with Limax (Packard). 

Jozra marina O. Fabricius. Indian Tickle (Packard) ; Indian 
Harbour, Sandwich Bay (Packard) ; Fox Harbour (Smith) ; 
Caribou Island, common near high- water mark (Packard) ; 
abundant at low water under stones (Packard). 

1 Names revised according to Richardson, "A Monograph on the 
Isopods of North America," Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 54, 1905. 
Isopods in Bryant collection determined by Dr. Harriet Richardson. 



APPENDIX VI 511 

Munnopsis typica M. Sars. Halfway from Cape Mugford to He- 
bron, 60 fms., mud, sand (Bryant) ; off Beachy Island, be- 
tween Flint Island and Cape Mugford, 80 fms., soft mud 
(Bryant) . 

Phryxus abdominalis (Kreyer). Port Burwell, on Spirontocaris 
polaris (Smith) ; Nachvak, on S. polaris (Turner) ; off Fish 
Island, 75 fms., mud, on S. macilenta (Bryant) ; halfway from 
Cape Mugford to Hebron, 60 fms., mud, sand, on S. macilenta 
(Bryant) ; Nain, 7 fms., mud on S. gaimardii var. (Bryant) ; 
Shoal Tickle near (southeast of) Nain, on S. macilenta (Bryant) ; 
L'Anse au Loup, on S. gaimardii belcheri (Stearns). 

Dajus misidis Kroyer. Labrador (Packard), probably from Mysis 



oculata (Smith). 



Amphipoda * 



Hyperia medusarum (0. F. Muller). Domino Harbour, found with 
numerous young in the stomach cavity of Cyanea arctica (Pack- 
ard) ; Dead Island (Smith). 

Euthemisto libellula Mandt. Mouth of Koksoak, Ungava (Turner) ; 
lat. 56° north, long. 60° west (Turner). 

Socarnes vahli Krayer. Nachvak (Turner). 

Orchomenella minuta Kroyer. Henley Harbour, 10-15 fms. (Smith). 

Tryphosa horingii Bueck. Labrador (Packard). 

Anonyx nugax Phipps. Port Burwell (Smith) ; Fox Harbour, 
3 fms. (Smith) ; Dumplin Harbour, Sandwich Bay, 4 fms. 
(Packard) ; Henley Harbour, 10-15 fms. (Smith) ; oft Henley 
Harbour, 40 fms., 3 miles from land, pebbly bottom (Packard) ; 
Sloop Harbour, 8 fms. (Packard). 

Centromedon pumilus Lilljeborg. Labrador, 15 fms., sand 
(Packard) . 

Onesimus edwardsii Kroyer. Atlantic coast of Labrador (Smith). 

Pontoporeia femorata Kroyer. Fox Harbour, 1-4 fms. (Smith) ; 
Belles Amours, 5-8 fms., muddy, abundant (Packard). 

Phoxocephalus holbolli (Krayer). L'Anse au Loup, 15 fms. (Smith). 

Ampelisca macrocephala Lilljeborg. L'Anse au Loup, 10 fms. 
(Smith) ; Henley Harbour, 10-15 fms. (Smith) ; Chateau 
Bay, 30 fms. (Packard) ; Stag Bay, 10 fms., hard bottom 
(Packard) ; Caribou Island, 8 fms., sand (Packard) ; Long 
Island, 15 fms., sand (Packard) ; Strawberry Harbour, 14 
fms., hard (Packard). 

Ampelisca eschrichtii Kroyer. Mouth of Koksoak, Ungava (Turner) ; 
Ungava Bay, 28 fms. in mud, pale yellow (Turner) ; Nachvak 

1 Names revised according to G. O. Sars, An Account of the Crustacea 
of Norway, Vol. I, 1895. 



512 APPENDIX VI 

(Turner) ; Chateau Bay, presumably (Smith) ; Caribou Island, 

14 fms. (Packard). 
Byblis gaimardii Krayer. Dead Island, 2-4 fms. (Smith) ; 

Henley Harbour, 10-15 fms. (Smith) ; Temple Bay (Smith) ; 

Chateau Bay, 30 fms. (Packard) ; Chateau Harbour, Long 

Island, 15 fms., sand (Packard). 
Haploops tubicola Lilljeborg. Chateau Harbour, Long Island, 15 

fms., sand (Packard) ; Caribou Island, probably (Smith). 
Stegocephalus inflatus Krayer. Nachvak, in cod stomach (Turner). 
Parcediceros lynceus M. Sars. Port Bur well (Smith) ; Henley 

Harbour, 10-15 fms. (Smith) ; Henley Harbour, 4 fms. (Pack- 
ard) ; Temple Bay, 10 fms. (Smith) ; Caribou Island, 8 fms., 

sand (Packard) ; L'Anse au Loup, 15 fms. (Smith) ; Forteau 

Bay, 20 fms. (Smith). 
Pleustes panoplus Kroyer. Port Burwell (Smith) ; Henley 

Harbour, 4 fms., among weeds, not uncommon (Packard) ; 

L'Anse au Loup, 10 fms. (Smith). 
Paramphithoe bicuspis Kroyer. Henley Harbour, probably (Smith) . 
Acanthozone cuspidata Lepechin. Temple Bay, 10 fms. (Smith). 
Acanthonotosoma inflatum Kr0yer. L'Anse au Loup, 8 fms., 

rocky (Smith). 
Acanthonotosoma serratum O. Fabricius. Dead Island, shallow 

water (Smith). 
Rhachotropis aculeata Lepechin. Port Burwell (Smith) ; Nachvak 

(Turner) ; Square Island, 30 fms. (Packard) ; Henley Harbour, 

10-15 fms. (Smith) ; Temple Bay, 10 fms. (Smith). 
Halirages fulvocinctus M. Sars. Henley Harbour, 10-20 fms., 

hard, weedy bottom (Packard). 
Apherusa bispinosa Bate. Henley Harbour, 10-20 fms., hard, 

weedy bottom, rare (Packard). 
Calliopius lasviusculus Kreyer. Henley Harbour, 4 fms., very 

abundant (Packard) ; Stag Bay, 15 fms., on hard, weedy 

bottom (Packard). 
Pontogeneia inermis Krayer. Square Island, 15 fms. (Packard) ; 

Henley Harbour, 4 fms. (Packard) ; Stag Bay, 15 fms., on hard, 

weedy bottom (Packard). 
Amathilla homari J. C. Fabricius. Labrador Reef, Ungava 

(Turner) ; Rigolet (Turner) abundant under stones on beach. 
Gammarus locusta Linn. Ungava Bay, amid floating ice (Turner) ; 

Labrador Reef, Ungava, abundant under stones among the sand 

and silt (Turner) ; mouth of Koksoak, Ungava, common under 

stones on beach (Turner) ; Davis Inlet, common (Turner) : 

Port Burwell (Smith); Rigolet (Turner); Fox Harbour, 1-4 

fms. (Smith); Gulf coast (Whiteaves) ; whole coast (Packard). 
Melita dentata Krayer. Square Island, 15-30 fms. (Packard) ; 



APPENDIX VI 513 

Henley Harbour, 10-15 fms. (Smith) ; Temple Bay, 10 fms. 

(Smith) ; Strait of Belle Isle, 15 fms., mud (Packard) ; Chateau 

Bay, 20-30 fms. (Packard) ; near Caribou, 10 feet, mud, sand 

(Packard). 
Amphithoe rubricata Montagu. Henley Harbour, 8 fms. (Packard). 
Ericthonius difformis Milne Edwards. Caribou Island, 8 fms., sand 

(Packard) . 
Unciola irrorata Say. Henley Harbour (Smith) ; Caribou Island 

(Packard). 
Dulichia porrecta Bate. Rarely found (Packard). 
Caprella linearis Linn. Battle Harbour, 12-14 fms. (Ortmann). 
Caprella septentrionalis Kroyer. Henley Harbour (Smith) ; whole 

coast, 4-30 fms., among weeds (Packard). 

Ostracoda 
Cypridina excisa Stimpson. Labrador (Packard). 

Copepoda 

Lerncea branchialis Linn. var. sigmoidea Steenstrup and Liitken. 
Labrador in Stearns collection (Smith) ; attached to skin of 
cod (Packard). 

Lepeophtheirus salmonis Kroyer. Ungava Bay, on salmon and sea- 
trout (Turner) ; Rigolet, on Salmo salar (C. B. Wilson). 

Branchiopoda 

Branchinecta arctica Verrill. Indian Tickle, north shore of In- 
vuctoke Inlet, abundant in a pool of fresh water (Packard) ; 
Indian Harbour (Bryant). 

Cirripedia 

Balanus porcatus Costa. Whole coast, only in deep water (Packard) . 
Balanus crenatus Bruguiere. L'Anse au Loup, 10 fms. (Smith) ; 

whole coast (Packard). 
Balanus balanoides Linn. Whole coast (Packard). 
Coronula diadema Linn. Taken quite frequently from the skin of 

whales caught in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Packard). 

Rhizocephala 

Peltogaster paguri Rathke. Henley Harbour, on Pagurus pubescens, 
shallow water (Smith). 
2l 



BOOKS, ETC., ON LABRADOR 

Census of Newfoundland and Labrador, 1901. Newfoundland 
Colonial Secretary, St. John's, N. F., 1903. 2 vols. 8°. 

Browne, Patrick William. "Where the Fishers Go," The Story 
of Labrador. New York (Cochrane Pub. Co.), 1909. Illus. 

Bryant, Henry Grier. A Journey to the Grand Falls of Labrador. 
New York (Century Co.), 1892. pp. 48. 8°. 
(From the Geographical Club of Philadelphia, Bulletin No. 2, 
Vol. 1.) 

Cabot, Wm. Brooks. In Northern Labrador. Boston (Badger, 
publisher), 1912. Portraits. 

Cartwright, George (1739-1819). Captain Cartwright and His 
Labrador Journal, edited by Charles W. Townsend, with intro- 
duction by W. T. Grenfell. Boston (Estes & Co.), 1911. 
Portraits and maps. 

Last Cruise of Miranda. Transatlantic Publishing Co., 1893. 

Cartwright, George. A Journal of Transactions and Events, 
During a Residence of nearly Sixteen Years on the Coast of 
Labrador. Newark (Allin & Ridge), 1792. 3 vols., portrait 
and maps. 4°. 

Chappell, Edward. Voyage of His Majesty's ship Rosamond to 
Newfoundland and the Southern Coast of Labrador. London 
(J. Mawman, pub.), 1818. 8°. 

Cilley, Jonathan Prince, Jr. Bowdoin Boys in Labrador. An 
account of the Bowdoin College Scientific Expedition to Labra- 
dor. Rockland, Maine, 1891. 8°. 

Delabarre, Edmund Burke. Report of the Brown-Harvard Ex- 
pedition to Nachvak, Labrador, in 1900. Philadelphia, 1902. 
Maps. 8°. (Reprinted from Bulletin of Geographical Society 
of Philadelphia, Vol. 3, 1902.) 

Durgin, George Francis (1858-1905). Letters from Labrador. 
Concord, N. H., 1908. 117 pp. 

Fisk, Wilbur Warren. The Glazier Party in the Wilds of Labra- 
dor. Boston (?), 1902. Broadside. 2 columns, size 13f" X 6f". 

515 



516 BOOKS, ETC., ON LABRADOR 

Grenfell, W. T. Labrador; The Country and the People. New 
York (Macmillan), 1909. 

Grenfell, W. T. Vikings of To-day. London (Marshall) , 1895. 
8°. 

Haydon, A. L. Canada at Work and at Play. With a chapter on 
Newfoundland and Labrador with introduction by Lord 
Strathcona. London (Cassel & Co.), 1904. sm. 8°. 

Hind, Henry Youle. Exploration in the Interior of Labrador 
Peninsula, the Country of the Montagnais and Nasquapee 
Indian. London (Longman), 1863. 2 vols., colored plates. 8°. 

Duncan, Norman. Dr. GrenfelVs Parish. F. H. Revell Co., 
1905. 12°. 

Duncan, Norman. Dr. Luke of the Labrador. F. Revell. 1903. 

Hutton, Samuel King. Among the Eskimos of Labrador. A 
record of five years' close intercourse with the Eskimo tribes 
of Labrador. Philadelphia (J. B. Lippincott Co.), 1912. 
Portraits. 

Grenfell, W. T. Down to the Sea. New York (F. H. Revell 
Co.), 1910. 

Grenfell, W. T. Off the Rocks. Philadelphia (S. S. Times Co.), 
1906. 

Grenfell, W. T. Doivn North on the Labrador. New York 
(F. H. Revell Co.), 1911. 229 pp., portrait. 

Kleinschmidt, Samuel. Grammatik der grinlandischen sproctih 
mit theilweisem Einschluss des Labrador dialects. Berlin 
(G. Reimer), 1851. 182 pp., folded table, 8°. 

Labrador. "Great Probability, The, of a North West Passage De- 
ducted from Observations on the Letter of Admiral de Fonte." 
Appendix containing the account of a discovery of part of the 
coast and inland country of Labrador, made in 1753. London, 
1768. xxiv + 153. 

Storer, Horatio Robinson. Observations on the fishes of Nova 
Scotia and Labrador, with Description of New Species. (From 
the Boston Journal of Natural History, Oct., 1850.) Boston, 
1850. 24 pp., 2 plates. 8°. 

United States, Hydrographic Office. Publications, No. 73, 78. 
Newfoundland and Labrador (1884), compiled by W. W. Gill- 
patrick and John Gibson ; (also), supplement No. 1 (corrected 
to April 1, 1886), compiled by Richard G. Davenport and John 
Gibson. Washington, 1884-86, 2 vols. 8°. 

Gosling, W. G. Labrador ; Its Discovery, Explanation and Devel- 



BOOKS, ETC., ON LABRADOR 517 

opment. New York (John Lane Co.), 1911. Portraits, 22 em. 
in 8 maps. 

Richards, George Milton. Geological notes, microscopical feat- 
ures of the rock specimens. Maps. (In Dillon Wallace, The 
Long Labrador Trail N. Y., 1907. pp. 289-308.) 

United States Coast Survey Sketch showing the Geology of the Coast 
of Labrador. By Oscar M. Lieber. Washington, 1860. 

Packard, Alpheus Spring, Jr., M.D. (born 1839). "Observations 
on the Glacial Phenomena of Labrador and Maine with a View 
of the Recent Invertebrate Fauna of Labrador. Oct. 5, 1865, 
illus. two plates. (In Boston Sec. of Natural History, Me- 
moirs, Vol. 1, pp. 210, 303. Boston, 1867.) 

Daly, Reginald Aldworth. The Geology of the Northeast Coast 
of Labrador. Illustrated. Map. (The Harvard College, Mu- 
seum of Com. Zoology Bulletin. Cambridge, 1902, Vol. 38, 
pp. 203-270). 

Gladwin, George E. Pen and Ink Sketches. "Coast and Har- 
bors of Labrador, Summer of 1876." Boston (Osgood & Co.), 
1877. 32 heliotypes, map. 8°. 

United States, Hydrographic Office. North America. East Coast. 
Coast of Labrador from Cape St. Charles to Sandwich Bay. 
From British surveys to 1882 (chart edition of Sept., 1887). 
Washington, 1887. 

Prowse, Daniel Woodley, Editor. The Newfoundland Guide 
Book, 1905. Including Labrador and St. Pierre. London, 
1905. Maps. 8°. 

(Sayer, Robert, and Bennett, John, publishers.) The North 
American Pilot for Newfoundland, Labrador. A collection of 
60 charts- and plans drawn from original surveys, etc. Lon- 
don, 1779. 

Wallace, Dillon. The Long Labrador Trail. New York (The 
Outing Publishing Co.). 

Wallace, Dillon. The Lure of the Labrador Wild. The story of 
the exploring expedition conducted by Leonidas Hubbard, Jr. 
Maps. New York (F. H. Revell Co.), 1905. 8°. 

Tucker, Ephraim W. Five Months in Labrador and Newfoundland 
during the Summer of 1838. Concord (Boyd & White), 1839. 
156 pp. 16°. 

United States, Hydrographic Office. Newfoundland and the Labra- 
dor Coast. 3d edition, 1909. Washington, 1909. 816 pp., 24 
cm. in 8. 



518 BOOKS, ETC., ON LABRADOR 

Townsend, Charles Wendell. Along the Labrador Coast. Boston 
(Dana Estes & Co.), 1907. Maps, portraits. 8°. 

Townsend, Charles Wendell. A Labrador Spring. Boston, 
(Dana Estes & Co.), 1910. Plates and 21| cm. 

Stearns, Winifred Alden. Labrador, a Sketch of Its People, Its 
Industries, and Its Natural History. Boston (Lee & 
Shepard), 1884. 12°. 

Sweetser, Moses Foster. The Maritime Provinces. A handbook 
for travellers, a guide to maritime provinces of Canada, also 
Newfoundland and the Labrador Coast. Boston (J. R. 
Osgood & Co.), 1875. 16°. 

Rouillard, Olivier Eugene. "La cote nord du Saint- Lauraut 
et le Labrador Canadien. Quebec (Laflaunne & Proulx), 
1908. 188 pp. 8°. 

Packard, Alpheus, Spring, Jr., M.D., 1839, The Labrador Coast. 
A journal of two summer cruises to that region with notes on 
Eskimo, etc. New York (N. D. C. Hodges), 1891. 8°. 

Prichard, Hesketh-Hesketh (born 1876). Through Trackless 
Labrador. New York (Sturgis & Walton Co.), 1911. Portraits, 
maps, etc. 8°. 

Huard, Victor A. Labrador et Anticosti. Montreal (Beauchenim), 
1897. Illus., map. 8°. 

Hubbard, Mina Benson (Mrs. Leonidas). A Woman's Way 
through Unknown Labrador. London (Murray), 1908. Por- 
traits. 8°. 

Noble, Louis Legrand. After Icebergs with a Painter. A sum- 
mer voyage to Labrador and around Newfoundland. New 
York (Appleton & Co.), 1861. 12°. 

Canto, Ernesto do. Quern den o nome ao Labrodor? Ponta 
Delgada (Archivo dos Acores), 1894. 23 pp. 4°. 

Long, Wm. Joseph. Northern Trails; Some Studies of Animal 
Life in the Far North. (Illus. by Copeland.) Boston (Ginn & 
Co.), 1905. 12°. 
These studies were made in Labrador. 

Stearns, Winifred Alden. Bird Life in Labrador. (Cut from 
the American Field for April 26, Oct. 11, 1890.) New York, 
1890. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador. Col. Wm. Wood. Commission 

of Conservation. Ottawa, 1912. 
Through Trackless Labrador. Hesketh Prichard. 
Labrador. Professor A. S. Packard, 1891. 
Cruise of Neptune. Dr. A. P. Low, 1906. 
After Icebergs with an Artist. Wm. Bradford, 1864. 
Notes on the Natural History of Labrador. W. H. Stearn, 1875. 

Robert Bell, 1884. 
In an Unknown Land. E. C. Robinson. 
Last Cruise of Miranda. Elliot Stoch, 1909. 
Bowdoin College Exploration, 1891. A. H. Norton, 1901. 
Ornithological Results of Canadian Neptune Cruise. 
Expedition to Hudson Bay and Northwest. C. W. Eifrig, 1903- 

1904. 
The Lure of the Labrador Wild. Dillon Wallace. 
The Long Labrador Trail. Dillon Wallace. 
A Woman's Way in Labrador. Mrs. Hubbard. 
Captain Cook. Charts on Record Voyage, 1768. 
Captain Cartwright and His Journal. Dana Esfces & Co. Charles 

TOWNSEND, 1911. 

Along the Labrador Coast. Dana Estes Co. Charles Townsend, 

1911. 
A Labrador Spring. Dana Estes and Co. Charles Townsend, 

1909. 
Journals of Captain George Cartwright. Published in Newark, 

England, 1792. 
Newfoundland and Its Untrodden Ways. J. S. Millais. 
Guide to Labrador. D. W. Prowse, 1910. 
The Tenth Island. Becks Wilson, 1897. 
Audubon. Grant Edwards. 
Labrador. Professor A. S. Packard, 
Voyages to Newfoundland. Lt. Edward Chappell, R. N. 1818. 

Mawman, London, publishers. 
519 



INDEX 



Acadians, settlement of, in Labrador, 
31. 

Alaska, introduction of reindeer into, 
252-253. 

Albert, Mission yawl, 236, 237, 238. 

Alexis River, 8. 

Allen, Dr. Glover M., 378 n., 495. 

Anglican church mission, 236. 

Anglo-Newfoundland Company, 180. 

Angora goats, importation of, 243. 

Ants, 461. 

Archean rock formations, 85-86. 

Ashuanipi River, 156-157. 

Ashwanipi Lake, derivation of name, 
206. 

Aspen buds and bark as an emer- 
gency food, 422. 

Attikonak River and Lake, 156-157. 

Audubon in Labrador, 374, 375, 376, 
386. 

Auk, extinction of the, 374; the 
razor-billed, 382-383. 

Aulatzevik, island of, 59, 93. 

Avagalik Island, 62. 

Bache, Mount, 58. 
Baine, Johnston & Company, 180. 
Bait for cod fishing, 302-303. 
Barren-ground People and River, 

198. 
Bartlett, Captain, 302. 
Basement Complex, the, 86 ff. 
Basque fishermen in Labrador, 13; 

relics of, 164. 
Bastian, John, 187, 206-207. 
Battle Harbour, Anglican church 

mission headquarters at, 236; 

mission hospital at, 238, 239 ff. 
Bear-hunting, 47, 145, 213. 
Bear Island, 130. 



Beaver-hunting, 204. 

Beetles, 467-472. 

Beeton, Mayson, 260. 

Bell, Dr. Robert, quoted, 123-124 

Belle Isle, Strait of, 7, 8, 27. 

Beothuk Indians, 25. 

Berries, varieties of, 212-213, 421. 

Bersimis, 189; trading-station at, 

193; canoes of, 207. 
Bersimis, Long Portage of the, 191. 
Biggar, H. P., work by, cited, 7. 
Birds of Labrador, 374-390, 495- 

505. 
Bishop's Mitre, the, 108. 
Bissot, Francois, 17. 
Blanc Sablon, 27, 29; fishery of, 165. 
Blandford, Captain Sam, 165. 
Blow-me-down, Mount, 98. 
Boston Transcript reindeer fund, 260. 
Botany of Labrador, 391 ff. 
Botflies on deer, 256, 455-456. 
Boulders, glacial, 130. 
Bounty system in French fisheries, 

323-324. 
Bourdon, Jean, 12. 
Bowdoin Canyon, Hamilton River, 

153-155. 
Bowring Brothers, firm of, 304. 
Bradore Bay, 21. 
Brave expedition, 81-138. 
Brest, harbour of, 13, 14; early 

accounts of, 15-17. 
Brigs and brigantines in fishing in- 
dustry, 318. 
Brouague, Martel de, 21. 
"Bultows," 303. 
Burial-places, Indian, 159, 225. 
Business firms conducting trade with 

Labrador, 179-180. 
Butterflies, 461-462. 



521 



522 



INDEX 



Cabot, John, discoverer of Labrador, 
5-6. 

Cabots, voyages of the, 6-8; reports 
of, on fisheries, 13. 

Cachalot whale, the, 357-358. 

Canoe bark, 207. 

Canoeing in Labrador, 54. 

Canoes, for exploration trips, 161 ; 
trade in, 207. 

Cape Chidley, Moravian Mission 
station at, 227-228. 

Caribou, 145, 158; spearing of, 210; 
range of, and habits, 213-215; 
botflies on, 256, 455-456; num- 
bers of, 258-259. 

Caribou Castle, 26. 

Carnegie, Andrew, portable libraries 
from, 242. 

Carter's Basin, 142. 

Cartier, Jacques, 11, 138. 

Cartwright, Major George, 19, 24- 
27, 35; his opinion of Labrador 
quoted, 138; description of a 
school of cod by, 287; quoted 
on the abundance of salmon in 
Labrador, 335-336; quoted on 
capture of penguins, 374-375. 

Cartwright, Hudson's Bay station at, 
182. 

Castle Mountain, 59-60. 

Charles Harbour, 26. 

Childhood, high rate of mortality in, 
178, 256. 

Chimo, Indians trading at, 196-197, 
210. 

Class distinctions, absence of, 176- 
177. 

Cliffs along coast, 44. 

Climate of Labrador, 69. 

Clothing of Indians, 209-210. 

Clouston, James, 53. 

Cochrane, Sir Thomas, 29-30. 

Cod, uses of the, 282-283; food 
value of, 283-284; methods of 
preserving, 284; its spawning 
habits, 285; life of young, 285- 
286; size of, 286; digestive 
powers of, 287-288; supply of, 
288-290; habits of, 289, 294- 
296; methods of catching, 302- 



306; curing of, 307-309; sta- 
tistics of takings of, 314-316; 
prices commanded by, 316-317; 
European markets for, 320 ; im- 
port duties on, 323-324; in- 
fluence exerted on mankind by, 
324-326. 

Cod fishery, 13, 78, 282 ff. 

Codfish hatchery in Newfoundland, 
290. 

Cod-liver oil, 326. 

Cod trap, the, 305-306. 

Cooperative stores, 240, 241, 247. 

Cooperator, schooner, 241. 

Cormorants, 384. 

Corte-Reals, voyages of, 8-10. 

Courtemanche, Augustin de, 16-17, 
18-19, 21. 

Courts of justice, travelling, 246- 
247. 

Cree language, 219-223. 

Croucher, Mr., 302. 

Crustacea, the marine, 473-478 ; list 
of, 506-513. 

Culling of codfish, 320-321. 

Curing, of codfish, 307-309 ; of her 
ring, 345. 

Curlew, the Eskimo, 375-376. 

Curtis, Roger, 138. 

Dab fishing, 347-348. 

Daly, R. A., study of temperature of 

coastal waters by, 292-294. 
Darby, Captain Nicholas, 22. 
Daryl, mission launch, 243-244. 
Davis, John, explorations of, 11. 
Davis Inlet, 11, 45; Hudson's Bay 

Company post at, 181. 
Dawe, C. & A., 180. 
Dawson, W. Bell, monograph on 

tides by, 68 n. 
Deep-sea Mission, the, 236-250. 
Deer-hunting, 47, 78-79, 213-215. 
Diphtheria, brought by Eskimos from 

Buffalo Exposition, 179, 230. 
Diseases, 179, 188, 229, 230. 
Doane, Ernest, 468. 
Dogs, used in hunting, 204; killing 

of cattle by, 257 ; description of, 

272-273; habits and general 



INDEX 



523 



traits, 273-281 ; destruction of 
eggs and young birds by, 378. 

Dog-teams, 183. 

Drunkenness, absence of, 176. 

Duck, season for shooting, 78-79; 
breeding habits of, 384 ; the Lab- 
rador or pied, 374-375. 

Duties on fish imported into foreign 
countries, 323-324. 

Eagle River, salmon fishing on, 333. 

Eclipse Channel, 59. 

Education, problem of, 174-175. 

Egging, 376-377. 

Eider-duck Islands, 60. 

Eider ducks, 60, 384-385. 

Elliot, Henry, 363, 364. 

Emergency foods, 422. 

English, engaged in early fisheries, 
14; conquest of Canada by, and 
effect on Labrador, 22-28. 

Ericson, Leif, 3. 

Eskimos, Moravian missionaries and 
the, 33-36; places for best 
study of, 47-48; best educated 
people in Labrador, 175 ; diseases 
among, 179, 229, 230; lessening 
numbers of, 229, 232-233 ; cause 
of decrease in numbers of, found 
in lessening numbers of seal and 
walrus, 361-363. See Indians. 

Estotiland, legend of, 4-5. 

Etienne family of Indians, 202-203. 

Factors, in Hudson's Bay Company 
service, 183. 

Fanny's Harbour, 45. 

Fernandes, Joao, 10. 

Finback whales, 355. 

Fiords of Labrador, 39, 55, 57. 

Fisheries, Labrador, 12-14, 282 ff . ; 
cod, seal, salmon, and porpoise, 
20 ; establishment of sedentary, 
by English, and troubles caused 
by, 23-24; troubles with foreign 
nations over, 30 ; business firms 
interested in, 180; of interior, 
204-207; cod, 282-327; salmon, 
328-339 ; herring, 340-345 ; hali- 
but, 345-347; dab, 347-348; 



winter fluke, 348; lump-fish, 
348-349; sculpin, 349; rock 
cod, 349 ; hake or haddock, 350 ; 
shark, 350-351; whale, 352- 
361; walrus, 362-365. 

Fishing, on upper Hamilton River, 
158. 

Fishing customs along the coast, 165- 
169. 

Fiske, John, quoted, 5. 

Flies varieties of, 84, 453 ff. 

Flora of Labrador, 391 ff. 

Flour Lake, 155. 

Flower's Cove, cooperative store at, 
241. 

Fluke, the winter, 348. 

Flycatchers, varieties of, 389. 

Fog, mistake concerning prevalence 
of, 70. 

Food of Indians, 211-215. 

Ford, Chesley, 468. 

Ford, George, 60, 468. 

Forest fires, disastrous effect of, on 
game resources, 191-192. 

Forest growth, Hamilton River 
region, 147. 

Forests, Dr. Low's description of, 407— 
409. 

Forteau Bay, 27. 

Four Peaks, the, 102. 

Fox farm, establishment of, 242. 

Fox sparrow, the, 387, 

France, encouragement of home fish- 
eries by, 323-324. 

Fraser, James D., 183. 

Freels, Cape, 8-9. 

French, depredations by naval vessels 
of the, 28; agreement of tem- 
perament of, with the Indian, 
194. 

French Canadian settlements, 14-22. 

French fishermen, early, 13-14. 

French shore, the, 14. 

Frobisher, Martin, voyage of, 11. 

Fungi of Labrador, 421-422. 

Furs, months for taking, 75-76. 

Fur trade, 181. 

Geology of northeast coast, 81-139 
George, Lake of the, 213. 



524 



INDEX 



George River, 158. 

Gibb, E., experiment by, in salmon 

industry, 339. 
Gibbons, Captain, 12. 
Gilbert River, 8. 
Glacial Period, Labrador during the, 

114-126. 
Gnats, 84, 459. 
Gnupsson, Erie, 3. 
God, Indian conception of, 224. 
Gomez, Estevan, 14. 
Goode, Professor, quoted, 343. 
Goose, the Canada, 385. 
Gosling, W. G., 329 n. 
Grampus, the, 357. 
Grand Falls of Hamilton River, 49, 

53, 150-153; Indian name of, 

and legend concerning, 193. 
Grand Lake, 142. 

Grand River Lumber Company, 143. 
Grant for schools, 171. 
Grants, of fishing and trading rights 

in Labrador, 19; of land, 172-173. 
Gray, Captain, 181. 
Gray Straits, 181; tides in, 301. 
Greece, market for Labrador fish in, 

320. 
"Green fish" catchers, 168. 
Grieve, W. B., 238. 
Grinnell Glacier, 115-116. 
Grouse, Canadian ruffed and spruce, 

388. 
Guides, 40. 

Guillemot, the black, 376, 382. 
Gull Island Lake, 148. 
Gulls, 383. 
Gyrfalcons, white, gray, and black, 

380. 

Haddock, 350. 

Hake, 350. 

Half-breeds, hope of future popula- 
tion of Labrador lies in, 235. 

Halibut fishing, 345-347. 

Hamilton Inlet, 7, 8, 11, 19, 47, 140- 
146; geological theory concern- 
ing formation of, 137; head 
post of Hudson's Bay Company 
at, 181; landlocked salmon in, 
333, 



Hamilton River, 46-47, 51, 52, 54; 
description of, 146-160; hunt- 
ing along the, 195. 

Hamilton Valley, 51. 

Harp seal, the, 365-367. 

Harrigan, Cape, 45. 

Harrington, mission hospital at, 
238 ff. 

Harvey, Dr. Moses, on herring in- 
dustry, 344. 

Harvey & Company, 180. 

Haven, Jans, 33. 

Hawk, American rough-legged, 380. 

Hawke Bay, 8. 

Hayward, John, 303. 

Health conditions, 177-179, 245- 
247. 

Hebron, Moravian Mission station, 
35, 102, 229-230. 

Helluland, 3. 

Herjulfson, Bjarni, 2. 

Hermit-crabs, 474-475. 

Hermit thrush, 389. 

Herring fishery, 340-345. 

Hind, Labrador Peninsula by, quoted, 
216-217; study of cod-fishery 
by, 295, 296. 

Hog's Back reef, 63. 

Holmes, R. F., 53. 

Hooded seal, the, 371-373. 

Hook-and-line fishing for cod, 302— 
304. 

Hooker, Joseph D., cited, 405, 406, 
419-421. 

Hopedale, Moravian Mission station 
at, 34, 235. 

Hopwood, Sir Francis, 237. 

Hospital, at Okkak, 230-231. 

Hospitals, of Mission to Deep-sea 
Fishermen, 236 ff. 

Hospital vessels, 236 ff. 

Hubbard, Leonidas, 162. 

Hubbard, Mrs., 162-163. 

Hudson, Henrj', 12. 

Hudson's Bay, 12. 

Hudson's Bay Company in Labrador, 
31-32, 53, 181-182; life at 
inland posts of, 158-160; factors 
employed by, 183. 

Hudson Strait, tides in, 301. 



INDEX 



525 



Humpback whales, 355-356. 

Hunting, locations for, 47; season 
for, 78-79. 

Hunting grounds of Indians, 189- 
190, 195-197, 199, 202-203, 213- 
214; custom regarding infringe- 
ment on one another's, 203-204. 

Huxley, Professor, on the herring 
industry, 340, 343. 

Icebergs, 78. 

Iceland moss, 422. 

Import duties on Labrador fish, 323- 
324. 

Indian Harbour, mission hospital at, 
238, 240, 241 ff. 

Indians, taken as slaves by Corte- 
Real, 9 ; troubles of French with, 
21 ; Major Cartwright and the, 
25; numbers of, 186; diseases 
among, 188, 229-230; hunting 
regions of, 189-190, 195-197, 
199, 202-203, 213-214; migra- 
tions of, 190-191 ; custom re- 
garding infringement on one 
another's grounds, 203-204; 
polygamy among, 215; life of 
women, 215-216; language and 
dialects of, 217-223; religious 
beliefs and practices, 223-225. 

Infant mortality, 178, 256. 

Inhabitants of the coast, 164-183. 

Insects, 453-472. 

Iron deposit, 48. 

Isle aux CEufs, 17. 

Isle de Bois, 27. 

Italy, best market for Labrador fish, 
320. 

Jack Lane's Bay, 45. 

Jackson, Dr. Sheldon, 252, 258. 

Jacopie Lake, 155. 

Jaeger gull, the, 383. 

Jay, the Labrador, 388. 

Jem Lane's Bay, 45. 

Jesuits, no missions of, in Labrador, 

20. 
Job Brothers & Company, 180. 
Jolliet, explorations of, 12; sketch 

of career of, 17-18. 



Julia Sheridan, mission launch, 240, 
24L 

Kaumajet Mountains, 103-105, 109. 
Kayaks, 255. 
Kelts, 331. 

Kenamich River, 142. 
Kenamow River, 52, 142-143. 
Kennedy, Admiral Sir W. R., quoted, 

244-245. 
Kensington, Minn., Runic stone at, 

4 n. 
Kiglapait Range, 109-110. 
Killer whales, 356. 
Killinek, Moravian Mission station 

at, 227-228. 
Kinglet, the ruby-crowned, 387. 
Kittiwakes, 383. 
Knight, John, 11. 

Labrador, early visitors to, 1 ff. ; 
John Cabot the true discoverer 
of, 5-6; voyages of Cabots to, 
6-7; the Corte-Reals' voyages, 
8-10; origin of name, 9-10; 
early maps of, 10-11; Rut's 
and Cartier's voyages, 11; later 
voyages to, 11-12; fisheries the 
great industry of, 12-14, 282 ff . ; 
French Canadian settlements 
along the Quebec Labrador, 14- 
22; effect of English conquest 
of Canada on, 22-28; annexa- 
tion of, to Newfoundland, 22, 
24, 28-29; Acadians in, 31; 
Hudson's Bay Company in, 31- 
32, 226-227; Moravian mis- 
sionaries in, 32-36, 226-236; 
travelled routes to, 36 ff.; 
physiography of, 49 ff . ; area 
of peninsula, 50; climate, 69; 
rainfall, 70; summer tempera- 
ture, 71-73; seasons in, 74-80; 
geology and scenery of northeast 
coast, 81-138 ; missions of, 226- 
250; experiment with reindeer 
in, 251-271; dogs of, 272-281; 
fisheries of, 282-373; birds of, 
374-390, 495-505 ; flora of, 391- 
425; insects and beetles of, 



526 



INDEX 



453-472 ; marine Crustacea of, 
473-478, 506-513 ; mollusks of, 
479-483 ; mammals of, 484-494. 

Labradorite, 93-95, 232. 

Lakes of the interior, 54. 

Lake trout, 204-205. 

Land, acquisition of, by grant or 
purchase, 172-173. 

Landlocked salmon, 206, 333. 

Language and dialects of the Indians, 
193-195, 217-223. 

Lark, the horned, 379. 

Lemoine, French-Montagnais Dic- 
tionary of, 220, 221. 

Libraries, portable, 242, 248. 

Lichens, 422. 

Lighthouses, absence of, 300-301. 

Lindsay, Lieutenant W. G., 244, 264. 

Liquor' question, 175-176, 248-249. 

Little, Dr. J. Mason, 244. 

Livyeres, Labrador settlers, 164. 

Lobsters, 475. 

Lobstick Lake, 156. 

Loon, the, 381. 

Lorna Doone, schooner, 244. 

Low, Dr. A. P., 50, 363, 427; quoted 
on physiography of Labrador, 
50-54; chapter on Hamilton 
River and the Grand Falls by, 
140-163 ; quoted on the Indians, 
185; description of forest region 
by, 407-409. 

Lump-fish, the, 348-349. 

McCallum, Sir Henry, quoted, 247 n. 

McCrea & Son, firm of, 180. 

MacGregor, Sir William, 169, 258, 
315. 

McKenzie, Peter, 196, 213. 

McLean, John, 32, 53, 216. 

Mackerel, not taken in Labrador, 345. 

Made Beaver, as unit of value, 202.. 

Mail service, 169-170, 171; by dog- 
teams, 183. 

Makkovik, Moravian Mission station 
at, 35, 235-236. 

Mammals, the ocean, 352-373; list 
of, 484-494. 

Maniquagan River, Indian hunters 
on the, 189. 



Man vers, Port, 110, 112. 

Maps, early, 10-11, 52; British ad- 
miralty charts, 12, 64-65; of 
Moravian missionaries, 12. 

Marconi stations, 170. 

Markland, 3. 

Martin, Abbe, 20-21. 

Matheson, Duncan, 214, 442. 

Mealy Mountains, 142, 145. 

Mendrys, Dr., 53. 

Merchants carrying on business in 
Labrador, 179-180. 

Merchants' Map of Commerce, 15. 

Methodist church mission, 236. 

Mettek Islands, 60. 

Milk, the demand for, 257; of rein- 
deer, 270-271 ; of the porpoise, 
357. 

Minerals, 48. 

Minerva, Boston privateer, 26. 

Mingan, trading-station, 193. 

Minipi River, 147, 148. 

Missionaries, susceptibility of Indians 
to instruction by, 224. 

Missions, Moravian, 181, 183, 226- 
236; the Labrador Deep-sea 
Mission, 236-250. 

Mistassini, Indians trading at, 201- 
202. 

Mistinisi Lake, 214. 

Moccasins, snow-shoe, 209; deer 
skins for making, 254. 

Moisie River, 193. 

Mollusks, 479-483. 

Montagnais Indians, 48, 184, 186, 
196, 209, 216; fur trade with, 
181; Catholic religion of, 223. 

Moravian missionaries, charts of, 12; 
work of, 32-36. 

Moravian Missions, stations of, 181, 
183, 227; justification of trade 
methods of, 233-235. 

Mosquitoes in Labrador, 69, 84, 459. 

Mosses as emergency food, 422. 

Moths, 463. 

Mountains, 44-45, 62; considered 
geologicallv, 86 ff. 

Mugford, Cape,' 107-108. 

Mugford Tickle, 46. 

Munn Brothers, firm of, 180. 



INDEX 



527 



Murres, the, 376, 382. 
Muskrat Falls, Hamilton River, 147, 
148. 

Nachvak, Hudson's Bay Company 
station at, 229. 

Nachvak Bay, 63, 101-102. 

Nachvak dog-teams, 183. 

Nain, Moravian Mission station at, 
34, 231-235; Bishop and Ger- 
man consul at, 164, 231. 

Nain Bay, 12. 

Names, Indian, 218-219. 

Nansen, Fridjof, 362. 

Narwhale, the, 358. 

Nascaupee, Fort, 158-159. 

Nascaupee Indians, 9, 48, 184, 192, 
209 ; meaning attached to name, 
197-198; home of the, 214. 

New England fishermen, early diffi- 
culties with, 23-24, 30; visits 
of, 165-166. 

Nichicun, Indians at, 200-201. 

Noble and Pinson, firm of, 22, 26, 27. 

Northern Messenger, mission launch, 
242. 

Northmen, voyages of, to Labrador. 
2-4. 

Northwest River, 52, 142; Hudson's 
Bay station on, 182. 

Ogua'lik, island of, 105-106. 
Okkak, Moravian Mission station at, 

34, 230-231. 
Old, fate of the, among the Indians, 

216. 
Orphans and orphanages, 240, 242, 

243. 
Outardes River, Indian hunters on 

the, 189. 

Packard, A. S., quoted and cited, 81, 

133, 375, 473, 479. 
Palliser, Sir Hugh, 23, 33, 35. 
Parroquet, the, 381-382. 
Paul's Island, 93. 
Pemmican, making of, 211. 
Petitsikapau Lake, 155, 158-159. 
Petrels, the, 384. 
Phalarope, the northern, 381. 



Physiography of Labrador, 49-69. 
Pied duck, the, 374-375. 
Pike-perch, the, 206. 
Pipit, the American, 379. 
Place-names, Indian, 218. 
Pletipi River, 189. 
Polygamy among Indians, 215. 
Ponchartrain, Fort, 21. 
Population, statistics of, 178. 
Porcupine Rapids, Hamilton River, 

148. 
Princess May, hospital launch, 238, 

239, 241 . 
Ptarmigans, rock, Reinhardt's, and 

willow, 380-381. 
Puffin, the, 381-382. 
Pye, Albert, 468. 

Quebec Labrador, 29. . 

Rainfall, extent of, 70-71. 

Ramah. Moravian Mission station at, 
35, 229; cliffs at, 44. 

Ranger Lodge, 26. 

Raven, the northern, 389. 

Razorback, Mount, 61, 101. 

Redpoll, the, 387. 

Reid-Newfoundland Companj' boats, 
37-38. 

Reindeer, introduction of, 249 ; value 
of, when domesticated, 251-252 ; 
suitability of, to subarctic region, 
252 ; experiments in introducing 
into Alaska, 252-253; uses of, 
as food, for clothing, etc., 253- 
255; propagation of, 255-256; 
cost of importing, 260-267; 
arrival of consignment in Labra- 
dor, 264; success with, to date, 
268-271. 

Reindeer moss, 422. 

Religion of Indians, 223-225. 

Representation, Labrador's lack of, 
173-174. 

Revillon Freres, firm of, 142, 182. 

Rigolet, 140, 181 ; Methodist mission 
headquarters at, 236. 

Rigolet dog-teams, 183. 

Rivers of Labrador, 52. 

Robertson, Charles, 214. 



528 



INDEX 



Robertson, Samuel, 16, 30. 

Robin, the, 390. 

Rock cod, 349. 

Rock-tripes, 422. 

Roddick, Dr., boat given by, 240. 

Romaine River, 193. 

Rorke & Sons, firm of, 180. 

Rut, John, 11. 

Ryans, firm of, 180. 

Ryan's Bay, 61, 62. 

Sabbath, observance of the, 165-166. 
St. Anthony, mission hospital at, 

238, 241, 242 ff. ; cooperative 

store at, 244. 
St. Augustine trading-station, 193. 
St. Marguerite River, 193. 
St. Paul, Godefroy de, 19. 
Salmon, 206, 333; instincts and 

habits of, 328-334; destruction 

of supply of, 334-335; former 

and present supply of, 335-337; 

methods of taking, 337-338. 
Salmon cannery, Eagle River, 338. 
Salmon fishing^ 46, 78, 206, 328 ff . ; 

on upper Hamilton River, 158. 
Sandgirt Lake, 155-156. 
Sandhill Bay River, salmon fishing 

on, 333. 
Sanitary conditions, 177-178, 245- 

247. 
Sardines, herrings sold as, 343. 
Scenery of Labrador, 39, 44-46, 51- 

52; relation of, to geological 

formations, 85. 
Schimper, A. F. W., quoted and 

cited, 394, 403, 405, 411, 413, 

414-415. 
School grant, 171. 
Schools, denominational system of, 

174. 
Schooners, fishing, 298-299, 318. 
Scotch, success of, with the Indians, 

194. 
Scoter ducks, 385. 
Sculpin, the, 349. 
Sea-coots, 385. 
Seal, the harp, 365-366; the bay, 

369-370; the ringed, 371; the 

hooded, 371-372; the gray, 373. 



Seal hunting, 20, 144, 145, 168-169, 

361-362, 369. 
Sealskin-boot-making industry, 243, 

248. 
Seasons in Labrador, 74-80. 
Seine-nets for cod fishing, 304-305. 
Seven Islands Bay, 62. 
Seven Islands trading-station, 193; 

Indians at, 196. 
Shark, the sleepy, 350-351. 
Shearwaters, the, 384. 
"Shebeens," 175. 
Shrimps, 475-476. 
Sir Donald, Mount, 58. 
Sir Donald, hospital vessel, 240. 
Slaves, Labrador Indians taken as, 9. 
Sleds, construction of, 208. 
Smith, Sir Donald A., 240. 
Snow-shoes, styles of, 208-209. 
Spain, market for fish in, 320. 
Sparrow, the savanna, 380; white- 
crowned, 385-386; tree, 386; 

Lincoln's, 386-387; fox, 387. 
Spearing fish, 206. 
Sperm whale, the, 357-358. 
Steamers, for fishing and sealing, 168; 

for whale hunting, 359-360. 
Stone age, relics of the, 47-48, 58. 
Strathcona, Lord, 182, 240. 
Strathcona, hospital steamer, 240- 

241. 
Striped Island, 99. 
Sulphur-bottom whales, 352, 354- 

355. 
Sunday, rule against fishing on, 165. 
Swaine, Captain, 33. 
Swallows, species of, 389-390. 
Szkolny, John, 5. 

Tamarack, shoots of, as an emergency 

food, 422. 
Tasker, Mr. and Mrs., 197. 
Telegraph system, 170-171. 
Temperature, summer, 71-73. 
Temperatures of coastal waters, 292- 

294. 
Temple Bay, 22. 

Thompson-Seton, Ernest, cited, 422 
Thoresby, Mount, 110. 
Thresher whales, 356. 



INDEX 



529 



Thrush, the Alice's, 387-388; the 

hermit, 389. 
Tides, 43-44, 68, 301. 
Timber land, grants of, 172-173. 
Torngat Range, 100-101, 109, 111. 
Trappers, the, 226. 
Trawl fishing for cod, 303-304. 
Trees, along Hamilton River, 147, 

157. See Forests. 
Trout, lake, 204-205. 
Trout fishing, 46, 78; at Hamilton 

Inlet, 145-146 ; on upper Hamil- 
ton River, 158. 
Truck Act of 1831, 247 n. 
Truck system of trade, effort to 

break up, 240, 247. 
Tuberculosis, prevalence of, 178, 179, 

256-257. 
Tundra, defined, 410. 
Turner, Lucius M., cited, 197, 198. 
Typhoid fever, brought by Eskimos 

from Chicago Exposition, 179; 

anecdote concerning a patient 

with, 231. 
Tyrrell, J. B., 259. 

Uinastikai, Indian food, 211-212. 
Ukasiksalik (Davis Inlet), 11, 45, 181. 
Urelia McKinnon, mission boat, 240. 

Vessels, of Northmen and of Colum- 
bus, 3 ; hospital, 236 ff . ; in 
fisheries, 298-299, 318. 

Vikings, Labrador voyages of, 1-4. 

Vinland, 3, 4. 

Volcanic formations, 99 ff., 103. 

Voyages of the Cabots and Corte- 
Reals, Biggar's, 7. 

Wallace, Dillon, 162-163. 

Walrus, killing off of, 362-363; 
slight value of, to the white man, 
363-364; size and habits, 364; 
value to Eskimo, 364-365. 



Warblers, Tennessee and Wilson's, 
387; common and black-poll, 
388-389; Canadian and other 
varieties, 389. 

Waswanipi Lake, derivation of name, 
206. 

Water-birds, 381-385. 

West St. Modiste, cooperative store 
at, 241. 

Whale factories, 358. 

Whale hunting, 358-360. 

Whale Island, 62. 

Whale River, the smaller, 199. 

Whales, physiology of, 352-354; 
six species of, 354; sulphur- 
bottom, 354-355; finback, 355; 
humpback, 355-356 ; white, 356 ; 
thresher, or killer, 356; the 
grampus and porpoise, 357; 
sperm, or cachalot, 357-358; the 
narwhale, 358; food of, 358; 
hunting and cutting up of, 358- 
361; figures of the industry, 361. 

Whitbourne, quoted, 84. 

Whitefish, in upper Hamilton River, 
158; {labradoricus), taking the, 
205. 

White Handkerchief, Cape, 44-45. 

Whiteway, Sir William, 290. 

Windigo, evil spirit, 223. 

Winokapau Lake, 149-150. 

Wolstenholme, Cape, 55. 

Wolves, with caribou herds, 215; 
resemblance of Labrador dogs 
to, 272-274 ; respect of, for man, 
274. 

Women, life of Indian, 215-216. 

Wood, Francis H., 260 ff. 

Yachting, Labrador as a field for, 
41-44. 

Zeno, Antonio, narrative of, 4-5. 
Zoar, Moravian Mission station, 35 



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